SHILDON’S Great Britain international and European Cross Country Championships silver-medallist Kate Avery, representing New York’s Iona College at Stanford University in the United States, ran a lifetime best 10,000m time of 31 mins 41.44 secs – inside the qualifying time for this year’s World Championships in Beijing and next summer’s Olympic Games in Brazil.

The 23-year-old all-rounder, who finished just behind European champion Gemma Steel in Bulgaria in December, bounced back after what she felt was a disappointing 5,000m race on the same track a month earlier to slash a huge 46 seconds off her personal-best time finishing seventh in an international field under floodlights at the Payton Jordan meeting in California to shoot to the top of the UK rankings.

Avery had set a new 5,000m personal best time of 15 mins 25.63 secs finishing sixth in her race in the Stanford Invitational meeting on April 3 but felt she could have performed better.

She was delighted, however with her next race. “I am thrilled with that,” she said. “I can’t believe I have gone sub-31 minutes in such a big way.

“It is unbelievable to dip under the qualifying time for the World Championships and next year’s Olympic Games.”

Avery, who won last year’s Darlington 10K while on holiday in her native North-East, was fourth in the Commonwealth Games 10,000m at Hampden Park at the end of July in a time of 32 mins 33.35 secs.

*Morpeth Harrier Peter Newton won the North-East 10,000m track championship in a time of 30 mins 48.9 secs in windy conditions at Jarrow’s Monkton Stadium.

*A record field of 1,200 runners is expected to take part in tomorrow’s Sunderland Strollers’ Pier to Pier multi-terrain seven-mile race between South Shields and Sunderland, starting at 10am and following coastal footpaths to reach the finish area on the beach near Roker Pier.