GB debut today for Durham ace (From The Northern Echo)

GB debut today for Durham ace

9:30am Saturday 7th January 2012 in Athletics News By Frank Johnson

DURHAM CITY's North-East cross country champion Rosie Smith steps up for her senior Great Britain debut in today's BUPA Great Edinburgh International at Holyrood.

The 25-year-old former junior international joins a contingent of six other North-East athletes, including recent European Cross Country Championships medallists Freya Murray, Ryan McLeod and Mark Shaw.

Scots-born Murray, who now works in Newcastle and competes for the Chester-le-Street club, helped Great Britain win the senior women's team gold medals in Slovenia last month, while former Elswick Harrier McLeod, now running for Midlands outfit Tipton, and New Marske's Mark Shaw won silver and gold team medals respectively in the men's and junior races.

Smith, who also won last summer's Darlington and Tees Pride 10K road races, is having one of her best winter seasons, having won back her North-East title at Cramlington last month, and returns to the international stage after an absence of nearly eight years. She lines up in the 6K International Challenge against top athletes representing the United States and a European Select at a meeting which goes out live on BBC television. The race includes newly-crowned European cross country champion Fionnvala Britton, of Ireland, while the men's champion from Velenje, Belgium's Atelaw Bekele, wears a European vest in the 8K men's international team event.

North-East senior men's cross country champion Ricky Stevenson competes in the short-course 3,000m event, which he won in 2010 against a purely domestic field, claiming the scalp of Mo Farah, who won the World 5,000m title last summer. This time, however, the meeting organisers have put together a star-studded field - being hailed as the 2012 replacement for the World Championships - including three reigning Olympic champions, Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia) and Kenyan duo Asbel Kiprop and Brimin Kipruto.

Stevenson's clubmate, Andy Wiles, who helped New Marske win the North of England 10K road race championship silver medals at Clitheroe last month, and Shildon's North-East junior champion, Cameron Boyek, are also in action in the shadow of Edinburgh landmark, Arthur's Seat.

Hartlepool Burn Road Harriers host the annual multi-terrain Old Monk's six-mile race at Hart Village tomorrow (11am).

Club secretaries are reminded that on-line entries for the North of England Cross Country Championships at Wakefield on January 28 close tomorrow.