NORTHERN Champions Morpeth Harriers had to settle for the bronze medals in a nail-biting finish to the ERRA National 12-Stage Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park after leading the field going into the last leg.

The Northumbrians looked set to upstage defending champions Newham and Essex Beagles as their veteran Great Britain international Ian Hudspith lifted them into the lead on the penultimate 5.1-mile long leg with the fourth fastest time.

But newly crowned North-East Harrier League senior men's champion Matthew Nicholson was overtaken by the Beagles' James Shane and Tipton Harrier Ian Rawlinson, who snatched the lead for the Midlands outfit on the final short leg as the top three teams finished within 26 seconds of each other in the 50-mile contest, with Morpeth only four seconds away from second place.

It was Morpeth's best performance since winning the silver medals in 2007 with five of the team which raced at Sutton Park this time, while former AAA 1500 champion Nick McCormick recorded the fastest three-mile short leg time of 13 mins 49 seconds - 15 seconds faster than his nearest rival - to push his team into the lead for the first time on the seventh circuit.

Gateshead were the next North-East team to finish in 18th position, while Sunderland, third on the opening leg through former North-East Cross Country champion Patrick Martin, were 30th. North York Moors were 50th.

WEARSIDER Alyson Dixon ran the race of her life to win yesterday's Brighton Marathon in record time and achieve the qualifying mark for the World Championships in South Korea this summer.

The 32-year-old Chester-le-Street AC athlete, who is coached by Scottish distance-running legend Liz McColgan, clocked 2hrs 34mins 51secs to slice an astonishing 7mins 59secs off her personal-best, set in New York in November, to get the 2hrs 35mins qualifying time for Daegu with nine seconds to spare. Dixon's time obliterated the women's course record of 3hrs 4mins 55secs, set last year by the local athlete in the inaugural.

Dixon, a Great Britain international over 10K and the half-marathon distances, could not conceal her delight in qualifying for the World Championships Marathon on August 27.

"I was hoping for a new personal-best but to qualify for the World Championships is amazing - I am so delighted."

But Dixon, who chose to run in Brighton instead of next week's Virgin London Marathon, admitted she struggled at times before hitting top gear. "I had a bad patch at eight miles and started to suffer but I managed to recover by half way. I started to suffer again between 23 and 24 miles but I heard Richard Nerurkar (Olympic Games marathon runner) shouting encouragement and that helped a lot."

Elswick Harrier Paul Turner won yesterday's South Shields Harriers Sand Dancer Multi-Terrain 10K in 34mins 40secs, beating Heaton's Lucas Longman by 45 seconds. Tynedale over-45 Sonia Morley won the women's race in 39.10, finishing 14 seconds ahead of Durham City Harrier Aiveen Fox.