NORTH-EAST cross-country champion Andrew Caine has a final run-out in this afternoon's Elswick Harriers Norman Woodcock Memorial Road Race before deciding whether to defend his regional crown at Chester-le-Street next week.

The 25-year-old Tynedale Harrier, who also won last season's North of England title, has decided to have a close look at his winter racing programme as he attempts to push himself into contention for Great Britain selection for the World Cross Country Championships next spring.

Caine, a Scottish international who is rated as one of the North's brightest athletics prospects, admits he got a rude awakening when he finished a disappointing 13th in the Reebok Cross meeting at Margate, which also served as the trial for tomorrow's European Cross Country Championships in Croatia.

He said: "It was an eye-opener for me - a lot of the other guys were 100 per cent ready for the race and were very strong.

"I had hoped to make the team and it was just a shame I didn't.

"Now I've just got to keep working hard but I don't think I will hit my best form until after the turn of the year and ideally I would like to peak for the World Championships trial."

Caine believes he might have to be ruthless in his preparations for the trial - held in conjunction with the Inter Counties Championships at Nottingham in February - and could miss next week's North Eastern Championships.

Caine, who won at Consett last year, said: "I spent five years chasing the title and it meant a lot to me but I would be quite happy to sit back and let someone else have a go. I'll see how I feel on the day.

"I don't know yet about the Northern Championships either, but there is plenty of time to decide.

"My immediate ambition is to try to make teams for the major championships."

Caine, who is studying part-time at Northumbria University for a masters degree, could also try to qualify on the track for next summer's World Student Games.

This afternoon's meeting at Gosforth Park starts at 2pm and late entries will be accepted.

* Chester-le-Street AC's Dianne Heneghan, a 37-year-old mother-of-four, competes for Great Britain in her first major international, the European Cross Country Championships, in Croatia, tomorrow.

The former North-East cross country champion, who almost gave up the sport because of a back injury, won selection after finishing fifth in the trial at Margate last month.

* The European Athletic Association are hoping a constructive suggestion from Paula Radcliffe will persuade UK Athletics to back proposals for a change in the date of their annual cross country championships.

Despite strong initial support, since the scenic Harry Potter film location of Alnwick in Northumberland staged the first of its two meetings in 1994, the quality of fields contesting the meeting each December have drastically dwindled.

Even before their European Championships in Munich during the summer, the EAA suggested a February date would be far more ideal, particularly from the athletes' perspective, given the IAAF World Championships are traditionally held during the last weekend of March.

Radcliffe, who won her first senior international title at the 1999 event, said: ''I think the timing for the European Cross Country Championships is wrong.

''Possibly mid-to-late February would provide a good build up to the World Championships.''

Indeed an ailing turn-out for Sunday's championships in the Croatian seaside resort of Medulin is again uninspiring, with nearly all of the continent's elite distance runners missing.