Brilliant teenager Ernest Kimeli ran the fastest 10K in Britain this year on his road race debut to end fellow Kenyan Julius Kimtai's winning run in yesterday's big Auckland Castle event.

The 18-year-old World Junior Cross Country bronze medallist made a devastating switch to the tarmac, claiming the scalp of his Midlands-based stable-mate, who had won the Auckland Castle event three times, Kimeli, who left Africa earlier this year to join a group of Kenyans looked after by athletics agent Peter Hier, clocked 28 mins 56 secs - 11 seconds outside the course record - after breaking away approaching the 7K mark.

From then on he displayed blistering speed, covering the final three kilometres in only 8 mins 16 secs to beat Kimtai by an emphatic 33 seconds.

Kimeli, who speaks very little English, could only say: "I'm very happy - it was very hot."

But Kimtai, who had also won the Blaydon Race for a fifth time in June, was unstinting in his praise for the newcomer to road racing. He said: "He is something very, very special. When he made his break I tried hard to catch him but he was just too fast for me.

"It is the first time I have lost here and it is disappointing - but I will be back next year."

Hier believed that the record might have going if Kimeli and Kimtai had not been ultra-cautious early in the race about another Kenyan, Kipkemoi Katui, who went into the race after running a rapid 13 mins 19 secs in a track 5000m race.

But they need not have worried - Kipkemoi had no answer to Kimeli's sudden acceleration and trailed in third, four seconds behind the defending champion.

With Swiss-based Ethiopian Tesfaye Eticha, the 2003 Blaydon winner, in fourth place African runners again dominated the race, which has been won by a Kenyan every year since its inception in 1999. But Coventry Godiva's national cross country champion Glynn Tromans, finished fifth to claim the AAA 10K championship, 17 seconds ahead of Tipton's Matt Smith, with Redcar-based Stephen Hepples winning the bronze medal in seventh place.

Hepples, 24, had the distinction of leading the North-East to the silver medals in the Inter Counties Championships, with Morpeth duo Mark Hudspith and Neil Wilkinson 16th and 17th. Hepples, making his debut for the region, said: "I'm delighted to have led the North-East home on my debut of top athletes like Mark and Neil."

The women's record of 32mins 49 secs, set last year by Russia's Galina Alexandrova, would have gone if Australian-born Natalie Harvey, who now runs for Great Britain after settling in London, had paced herself better.

Harvey, who competes for South London Harriers, was nearly 200 metres ahead of a strong African contingent at the halfway mark, on record pace at 15 mins 12 secs, but suffered badly in the heat in the second half of the race.

Harvey finished 13 seconds outside the record in 33 mins 1 sec, beating runner-up Miryam Wangari, winner in 2002, by 41 seconds. She said: "I went out a little too hard and didn't realise how tough the course was. "I'm a bit disappointed not to have broken the record but next year I might run a little more sensibly."

The North-East women's team of Michelle Holt (Sunderland), Aiveen Fox (Morpeth) and Judith Nutt (Elswick) took third place behind Surrey and Norfolk in the Women's Inter Counties Championships.