ARMY regulars Alan Shepherd and Danielle Hodgkinson returned to their roots to take the honours in the fourth Start Fitness North-East Harrier League fixture at Gateshead.

Shepherd, a 36-year-old staff sergeant who has just secured an 18-month posting to Tyneside after serving three months in Afghanistan, took full advantage of a five- minute start with the slow pack to win the gruelling 9.2K senior men's handicap event by just over a minute.

Hodgkinson, a lance corporal in the Army Medical Corps at Aldershot, completed her leave with a runaway victory in the women's 6K, wearing the colours of her home-town club, Wallsend.

Shepherd, a stalwart member of Morpeth Harriers, helping to win several major team trophies, found himself in the slow-pack because he had not competed in the Harrier League for a couple of seasons.

But the four-times Army cross country champion hopes to compete regularly on his return to the region.

"This is a dream posting for me," admitted Shepherd. "It's great to be running again - I couldn't train properly in Afghanistan so I have a lot of catching up to do."

The men's individual title race is still wide open after Sunderland Harrier Stephen Potts shot to the top of the leader-board by posting the fastest time of the day from the fast pack, overtaking four-times champion Stewy Bell, who was hampered by a cold.

Potts, giving away up to five minutes start, finished in 19th position to help the defending team champions increase their lead at the top of Division One. Bell, who topped the table with 20 points from the first three runs, was fifth finisher from the fast pack, but had a slower time than medium pack runner David Kirkland, who used his 2 minutes start to take second place 62 seconds behind Shepherd.

Hodgkinson received a 2 minutes start with the senior women's slow-pack, leading all the way to beat veteran fast-packer Donna James, of Elvet Striders, by 66 seconds, with fourth-placed Judith Nutt leading Elswick to victory in the team race.