Wearside veteran Tom Doughty showed his younger rivals a clean pair of heels yesterday when he became the first over-40 to win the 7.5-mile Pier to Pier race between South Shields and Sunderland.

And the 41-year-old Sunderland Harrier, who won the over-40 bronze medal in the World Triathlon Championships in New Zealand in December, demonstrated his powers of recovery, having led his club into eighth place in the British Masters Road Relay Championships 24 hours earlier.

Doughty took no chances on the outcome of a possible sprint finish against club-mate Steve Potts by breaking away from his younger rivals just after the halfway mark near the Whitburn Rifle Range and going on to win by a comfortable 22 seconds.

Former RAF regular Doughty, who returned to his native Wearside last year, said: "I'm very pleased to have won, especially after running in the relay championships on Saturday.

"I was a bit unsure of the course so I ran with Steve until we got to Whitburn and I managed to get away."

Newly-crowned North-East 5,000m track champion Michelle Holt made it a double for Sunderland Harriers with a runaway victory in the women's race, beating Northumberland fell runner Karen Robertson by an emphatic three minutes.

The 20-year-old Durham University teaching undergraduate was five minutes faster than her time two years previously when she finished 12th.

Results: Men (7.5m): 1 T Doughty (Sunderland M40) 38.10; 2 S Potts (Sund) 38.32; 3 A Tatham (Quakers) 39.57; 4 P Groark (Sund) 40.24; 5 S Armstrong (Unattached) 40.36; 6 M Jones (South Shields M40) 40.58; 7 D Houshdy (South Shields) 41.30; 8 S Coxon (Tynedale M40) 41.37; 9 M Slessor (Jarrow & Hebburn) 41.47; 10 D Armstrong (Elswick) 41.53. M50 R hall (Blyth) 43.38; M60 R Wilson (Sund) 46.57. Team: Sunderland 7 pts.

Women: 1 M Holt (Sund) 44.37; 2 K Robertson (Tynedale W35) 47.54; 3 J Atkinson (Newton Aycliffe W35) 48.38. W40 C Jackson (Unatt) 50.05.

* Tracey Morris is hoping for a quieter existence after yesterday's BUPA Great Manchester Run - until August at least.

Morris received huge media exposure after she became the first Briton to finish at the Flora London Marathon last month to book a place in the Great Britain Olympic team for Athens - despite only competing in the race once before, five years earlier.

She was the main focus of attention again yesterday in her first race since her London exploits but with foreign runners occupying eight of the top ten positions, Morris finished 11th, the third Briton across the line behind eighth-place finisher Liz Yelling and Louise Damen in tenth.

Morris said: ''Obviously I am now hoping I will stop being the centre of attraction."

Morris never expected herself to figure among the medals in Manchester, where Olympic 5,000m silver medallist Sonia O'Sullivan won from African stars Berhane Adere and Margaret Okayo, the winner of the gruelling London Marathon.