TEESSIDER Kirsty Legg has flown home from her American university to defend her North-East cross country title at East Cramlington today.

And the 21-year-old Mandale Harrier appears to be in top form as she prepares to take on her main rival, former Great Britain international Rosie Smith, who lost the senior women's crown at a re-arranged championships at South Shields in January.

Legg has starred all summer for Butler University in Indiana, and before returning home won the top athlete award when she sliced an eye-catching 20 seconds off her personal-best 3,000m time by opening the winter indoor season in a record-breaking time of 9 mins 19.60 secs. In September the middle-distance track runner, with a series of 800m summer victories to her credit, clocked an impressive 16 mins 20 secs for 5K, an improvement of 1 min 33 secs.

Smith, 25, is also on top form after preparing carefully for today's championships, striving to regain the title she won at Darlington in 2009.

The Durham City Harrier won the Darlington, Tees Pride, North Tyneside, Ray Harrison Memorial and Raby Castle 10Ks in the summer before beginning her cross country season with a runaway victory at Sunderland, going on to take the silver medal in the Scottish 4K championships and finishing a creditable 12th in the high-class McCain Cross Challenge and European trial at Liverpool two weeks ago.

Legg beat Smith by an emphatic 57 seconds at Temple Park, but the duel is expected to be a much closer conflict over a gruelling 8.2K in Northumberland today.

The senior men's race, which has attracted 450 entries, looks wide open after the withdrawal of defending champion Lewis Timmins. The 24-year-old Morpeth Harrier, who has finished his studies at Tulsa University, is suffering from an ankle injury which has curtailed his cross country running.

Former Sunderland Harrier Patrick Martin, who, with brother Jack, has helped his new club, Stockport Harriers, win the competition to represent the UK in the European Clubs Championship in February, returns to the North-East in a bid to win back the title he held in 2009.

But he faces stiff competition from the fast-improving Morpeth Harrier Jonny Taylor, the winner of last month's big Leeds Abbey Dash 10K who is trying to establish himself as a steeplechaser under the guidance of top Teesside coach Gordon Surtees. Durham City's Daniel Garbutt, bronze medallist at South Shields, is also expected to be among the leading contenders, while Morpeth's fell running international Nick Swinburn should feel at home on the testing 12.1K Nature Reserve course.

The 106th championships start at 11am with the under-13 boys' race over 2.9K, while the senior men's race is due off at 1pm.

*The North-East will have three representatives in tomorrow's Spar European Cross Country Championships in Slovenia - Chester-le-Street's Scottish cross country champion Freya Murray, former Elswick Harrier Ryan McLeod, now with Tipton, and New Marske junior Mark Shaw.

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