GREAT Britain international Stephen Hepples, now fully recovered from a troublesome Achilles injury, is hoping to throw off the effects of a chest infection in time to defend his North-East title in tomorrow's Redcar Half Marathon.

The 25-year-old Redcar-based athlete has had his winter training programme disrupted by his first serious injury but he is back on track now, covering 90 miles a week in training.

Hepples' last competitive outing on the roads came last month when, representing his British Athletics League Division One club, Newham and Essex Beagles, he finished a disappointing 11th in the AAA 10K Road Race Championships at Chichester, recording a time of 30 mins 11 secs.

He has been reluctant to compete wearing cross country spikes and he gave himself a brief outing in last weekend's final North Yorkshire and South Durham Harrier League meeting at Richmond, leading until the halfway mark in the senior men's race before dropping out.

His coach, Peter Clifford, said: "Stephen would love to defend his title at Redcar but he will make a decision closer to the race."

Reigning half-marathon women's champion Bernadette Taylor may be unable to defend her title tomorrow. The Darlington Harrier is on her way back into competition after injury and was forced to turn down an invitation to represent the North-East in today's Inter Counties Cross Country Championships in Nottingham.

* The North-East has been forced to make changes to its men's and women's teams in today's Inter Counties Championships at Nottingham.

Reigning North-East Cross Country Champion David Wardle (London Irish) has withdrawn because he is disappointed with his recent form, including a 75th placing in the National Championships, while Morpeth Harrier Chris Sampson is injured. They will be replaced by Low Fell's Jon Archer and David Swinburne (Morpeth), who join Dominic Bannister (Shaftsbury Barnet), David Anderson (Belgrave), Andrew Caine, Tynedale), Stewy Bell (Chester-le-Street), Paul Hutton (Gosforth), Mark Brown (Morpeth) and Mark Hood (Sunderland).

The women's team has suffered even more, with only six athletes available from the 15 named in the programme for the six-to-count team race.

The North-East, however, could be challenging for a medal position as the six available are close to being their strongest squad - Sonia Thomas (Sale), Alyson Dixon (Chester-le-Street), Rosie Smith (Durham City), Donna James (Elvet Strider) and Morpeth duo Aiveen Fox and Jayne Mooney.

* Morpeth Harrier Nick McCormick climbed above Seb Coe and Steve Ovett to sixth place in the UK all-time 2000m list when he finished second in Melbourne's Olympic Park in his final track race before the Commonwealth Games.