BRILLIANT Tynesider Nick McCormick survived an early tumble to retain his short-race title in the Great North Cross Country meeting in Edinburgh.

And the exciting 24-year-old Morpeth Harrier, who will run over 1500m in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, announced his intention to step up to 5,000m for this summer's European Championships.

McCormick was shaken up by the fall after only 600 metres in the 4.3K event at Holyrood, but he quickly regained his feet and his composure to regain the lead and beat Blackheath Harrier Mike Skinner and the newly-crowned European junior cross country champion Barnabas Bene by a second in 12 mins 15 secs.

The margin of victory was much closer than it was a year ago in the Scottish capital, but McCormick always looked to have plenty in hand.

Afterwards McCormick, the reigning AAA 1500m champion, who earned his ticket to Melbourne by beating Commonwealth champion Michael East last summer, explained that he believes he will have a much better chance of success over 5,000m in Gothenburg than taking on the cream of Europe's metric milers.

McCormick will travel to Australia early next month and plans a series of testing track races before the Games get underway.

Other North-East athletes' placings in the Edinburgh event were: 12 Michael Morris (Morpeth) 12.45; 14 Mark Hood (Sunderland) 12.54; 15 Ryan McLeod (Elswick) 12.55; 24 Ryan Stephenson (North Shields Poly) 13.15; 26 Chris Parr (Gateshead) 13.26; Matt Nicholson (Gosforth) 13.28.

l Morpeth Harriers avenged last year's defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Sunderland in yesterday's 23rd Durham Cathedral Cross Country Relays.

Gavin Massingham gave Sunderland a one-second lead on the first 3K leg, but Chris Sampson beat British Veterans' cross country champion Brian Rushworth by three seconds on the second circuit and former AAA half marathon champion Ian Hudspith clinched victory for Morpeth, clocking the fastest time of 8 mins 25 secs to win by 18 seconds from Sunderland's Patrick Martin.

Sunderland had the consolation of winning the veteran's race - and the North-East Championship - leading from start to finish with opening leg runner Tim Field the fastest of the day in 9 mins 3 secs.

Chester-le-Street demonstrated their strength-in-depth by finishing first and second in the senior women's relay, with former British Universities 10,000m champion Alison Dixon fastest in 9 mins 48 secs. Durham City won the veteran's championship, with first leg runner Debbie Hales clocking the fastest time of 10 mins 40 secs.

* The senior events in the Durham Schools Cross Country Championships at Meadowfield were won by Michael Crawley (Durham Central) and Alex Snook (Darlington).

Reigning North-East under-15 champion, Kate Avery, took the junior girls' title, with Liam Wintrip (Easington) winning the boys' race. The intermediate titles went to Carl Smith (Durham Central) and Helen Gurtig (Gateshead).