COMMONWEALTH Games international Nick McCormick added his name to the list of illustrious winners of the Elswick Harriers Norman Woodcock Memorial race at Newcastle's Gosforth Park.
The 25-year-old Morpeth Harrier clocked a rapid 28 mins 51 secs for the six-mile event, previously won by many leading Tyneside athletes, including Olympic silver-medallist Mike McLeod, former triple world record holder Steve Cram and the inspiration behind the Great North Run, Brendan Foster.
But the 2005 AAA 1500m champion was half a minute outside the course record set by Chicago Marathon winner Paul Davies-Hale in 1990.
McCormick, who used the race to get back on track after a disappointing 30th place in the mud at the European Cross Country Trials in Liverpool the previous week, beat previous winner David Anderson, an exiled Tynesider now running for London club Belgrave Harriers, by an emphatic 1 min 13 secs.
McCormick's next outing will be in the Great North Cross Country meeting in Edinburgh, where he first shot to prominence last year.
Results: 1 N McCormick (Morpeth) 28.51; 2 D Anderson (Belgrave) 30.04; 3 R Stephenson (North Shields Poly) 30.22; 4 D Kirkland (Alnwick) 31.44; 5 I Crampton (Durham City M40) 32/25; 6 M McLeod (Elswick) 32.46; 7 P Branston (Gateshead M40) 32.52; 8 J Buis (Heaton) 32.58; 9 L Atkinson (Morp M50) 33.00; 10 P Besford (Unatt) 33.17. M45 P Dixon (Elswick) 34.14; M55 E Taylor (Unatt) 38.18; M60 B Cordes (Morp) 44.07. Teams: 1 Elswick 39; 2 Morpeth 50; 3 Heaton 59.
Women: 1 A Hibbs (Claremont) 38.24; 3 H Lambert (NSP W35) 38.38; 3 G Campbell (Newcastle Univ) 39.05; 4 M Woodley (Morp) 39.55; 5 E McFarlane (Els) 40.18. W40 A Allan (Alnwick) 47.04; W45 G McKernan (Blaydon) 42.07; W55 I Henderson (Blaydon) 50.58. Teams: 1 Sunderland Strollers 35; 2 Claremont 37; 3 Heaton 40.
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