HEAVY rain failed to dampen spirits as competitors overcame difficult conditions at a weekend running festival.

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The fifth annual Sunderland City Half Marathon and 10k runs attracted a turn-out of about 3,500 athletes, despite the driving rain and windy conditions which hit Wearside and the rest of the North-East region on Sunday.

Top club runners, including elite competitors with a background in the east African hot-bed of the sport, set off round the streets of Sunderland from the Stadium of Light, which also provided the finishing line for both runs.

Among them were about 100 local entrants from the Sunderland Strollers club, who dedicated their participation in both events to former teammate Nicola Norton, who died from cancer last month.

She was in the throes of training for last year’s run when she suffered a stroke. Subsequent tests revealed tumours in both her heart and brain.

One of her former club colleagues, Alyson Dixon, who won last year’s half marathon, successfully switched to the 10k event this year.

The 36-year-old Great Britain marathon international set a new course record, by an 87-second margin, crossing the finishing line in 34 minutes and 50 seconds, beaten by only six of the male competitors.

Middlesbrough-based London Paralympics 1500m silver medallist, Wondiye Fikre Indelbu, won the men’s 10k in 32 mins and 50 secs, beating defending champion Ian Hudspith, the Morpeth veteran, by 17 seconds.

Indelbu’s fellow North-East-based Ethiopian compatriot Tadele Geremew, who now runs for Elswick Harriers, on Tyneside, won the men’s half marathon in 71 mins and 24 secs.

Tyne Bridge Harriers’ 41-year-old Louise Rodgers crossed the line first in the women’s half marathon, in 88 mins and 42, beating Sunderland Stroller Ashleigh Ewan, by 48 seconds.

North-East athletics legend Steve Cram, the event founder, said the weather was “probably the worst” experienced in all five years.

“It has been a hard day for the runners and everybody involved in making it all happen.

“But I’m so pleased so many people came out and took part, despite the conditions.”

The runners were put through their paces prior to both events by a mass work-out led by local fitness entrepreneur and BBC Apprentice star Katie Bulmer-Cooke, while members of the Sunderland AFC ladies side acted as starters.