KENYAN road-racing ace Julius Kimtai will be hot favourite to lift the £1,000 first prize in tomorrow's star-studded Auckland Castle 10K.

And the Coventry-based athlete, who is defending his title, will be trying to set a new course record after some sparkling displays this summer.

The big race, which is sponsored by Fila and Running Fitness, and is supported by The Northern Echo, again starts in Bishop Auckland Market Place at 9.30am.

But the event is much bigger and more competitive in its second year following the decision to make it the third and final race in the Fila Grand Prix Series, attracting most of the leading 10K exponents in Britain.

But Kimtai is undoubtedly the star performer and he is looking forward to returning to the North-East following his success last year and his triumph in the prestigious Blaydon Race, where he successfully defended his title in June.

The Tipton Harrier has the distinction of having recorded the four fastest 10K times of the year by an athlete with a British club.

Kimtai won the AAA 10K road race championship at Bradford last month leading Tipton to the team title in a time of 29min 6sec in rainy conditions.

But Kimtai tasted his first defeat on Britain's roads this year two weeks later when he finished runner up to fellow Kenyan Laban Markwet Kipkemboi in the Nike Pegasus Swansea Bay 10K.

With a £22,500 Saab convertible on offer for any runner finishing in 28 minutes or better the competition was red hot - but Kipkemboi was 17sec outside the target with Kimtai clocking 28.22, the fastest time by a UK-based athlete this year.

A week earlier Kimtai smashed the course record in the Kruf Cardiff 10K. winning in 28.23 and leading Tipton to victory in the team race.

His consistent times suggest that his winning time last year of 29min 12sec - the fastest in England - will be seriously under threat, especially facing sterner opposition from athletes chasing a £1,000 jackpot in the Grand Prix series.

Leading the chase is Tipton clubmate Matt Smith, who finished third (31.04) in the first race at Stoke and fifth at Bradford (29.36), and leads Coventry's Glynn Tromans in the event by nine seconds.

But the main threat to Kimtai is likely to come from fellow countryman Timothy Cherigat, who was third at Swansea in 29.09.

Other leading challengers are Tipton's Nick Jones, who has been selected to represent Great Britain in next month's World Half Marathon Championships in Mexico, and last year's runner-up Mark Morgan, while the North-East's leading contestants will be brothers Mark and Ian Hudspith, who led Morpeth Harriers to a first-ever triumph in last weekend's Northern Six Stage Road Relay Championships.

An African double is very much on the cards as Birhan Dagne chases the £1,000 Grand Prix award, having run 35.46 winning the first race at Stoke and 34.08 finishing fourth at Bradford, and goes into the final test with a 1min 56sec lead over Parkside's Alison Wyeth.

Dagne, who used to run for Ethiopia, is now a UK citizen competing for Essex Ladies, and has represented Greta Britain in the World Cross Country Championships.

Last year's Auckland Castle winner, Dianne Heneghan, will not be defending her title, and runner-up, Kerry Matthew, of Middlesbrough and Cleveland, has also decided not to run.

The 700-entry race limit has been reached and there will be no late entries.

l Double Olympic 10,000m champion Haile Gebrselassie has been forced to withdraw from the BUPA Great North Run on October 22 with a heel injury he aggravated in Sydney.

But the Ethiopian superstar hopes to make his half marathon debut on Tyneside next year - and believes he could set a new world record by becoming the first man to run under 59min.

'The Emperor' insisted there was no way he would compete unless he was fully fit and said: ''I could probably run the race and win it. But it would not be a fast time.

''What I want to be able to do is give the spectators something special to watch."