NEW ZEALAND 10,000m track champion Andrea Woodvine has joined Chesterle- Street and is pitched straight into the Northern Champions’ team which battles for the national road relay title at Sutton Coldfield today.

The 27-year-old former Richmond and Zetland Harrier won the Yorkshire cross country championship in 2008.

And, after winning the New Zealand title in January in a personal-best 33 mins 29.94 secs, placing her seventh in this year’s UK rankings, she moved on to the United States, where she won the Stanford Invitation 5,000m in a time of 16 mins 8.66 secs.

Woodvine, who has moved back to live in Northallerton, will run on the anchor leg at Sutton Park, taking the place of Great Britain international Alyson Dixon, who is concentrating – under the guidance of Scottish legend Liz McColgan – for her second marathon attempt in New York next month.

The other change to the Chester-le-Street squad which won so handsomely for a fifth time in a row in Manchester two weeks ago, is the return of Scottish international Maxine Czarnecka in place of Tracy Laws, who married Birtley runner Lee Millmore at Gretna Green last weekend.

Woodvine, who joined top Southern outfit Aldershot, Farnham and District after leaving Richmond, was fourth in the 2008 British Universities cross country championships and went on to finish 18th in the World Student Cross Country Championships in France.

Chester-le-Street, runnersup last year and national champions in 2003, will be represented by Melissa Turner, Claire Simpson, Czarnecka and Woodvine.

The North-East teams qualified for the six-stage men’s championships are Morpeth Harriers, sixth in the Northern Championships, Sunderland (8th) and Gateshead (10th).

■ Former triple world middledistance record holder Steve Cram returns from his Commonwealth Games commentary duties in Delhi to start the first Kielder Marathon tomorrow (10am start).