FLEET-FOOTED teacher Mark Hood picked up prize-money of £125 for winning yesterday's Saltwell 10K - and immediately arranged to take his primary school colleagues out for a pre-Christmas celebration.

"I said I'd take everyone out to celebrate if I won the race once we break up on Tuesday, so the drinks are on me," said the 24-year-old Sunderland Harrier.

It was Hood's second victory in a race he last won in 2001, and as well as the £100 first prize he picked up a bonus of £25 for leading at the top of the exhausting Chowdene Bank. He saw off the early challenge of Elswick Harrier Ryan McLeod, whose father Mike won the event 16 years in succession, then fended off a late challenge from Gateshead's Chris Parr, who finished 14 seconds down.

Hood, disappointed to finish only fourth in the previous weekend's North-East Cross Country Championships, clocked a comfortable 32 minutes in the testing Gateshead race, which only got the go-ahead when the organisers agreed to spend £1,000 on safety measures, including the use of two police motor-cycle out-riders.

Hood said: "The pace was a bit lethargic early on so I decided to make a good race of it.

"Ryan was the only one to come with me, but just before the halfway mark I started to put in some surges and he dropped off.

"At the start of Chowdene Bank I had a lead of between five and ten metres and I pushed as hard as I could. At the top of the bank I had a lead of 50 or 60 metres."

World Junior Cross Country Championships international McLeod, winner of the Norman Woodcock Memorial race two weeks earlier, faded back to third in 33 mins 11 secs, but led Elswick to team victory, with South Shields the leading veterans' trio.

Women's winner Judith Nutt turned the tables on defending champion Zoe Tucker, avenging her defeat last year by finishing 52 seconds clear in a personal-best 37 mins 14 seconds, leading Elswick to a team double.

Marcus Cram, the son of Steve Cram, won his first-ever race, timing his finish perfectly to beat Gateshead's Jamie Robson by two seconds in the under-13 event.

* Newly-crowned North-East Junior Men's Cross Country champion Jonathan Taylor (Middlesbrough Mandale), won yesterday's seven-mile multi-terrain Loftus Poultry Run in 43 mins 58 secs, beating North York Moors AC's Victor Brudenell by 39 secs.

Susie Rutherford (50.26) won the women's race, beating Darlington clubmate Alison Raw by 24 seconds.