NORTH-EAST hopes of medal-winning performances at today’s Inter Counties Cross Country Championships are high after the regional association came up with £3,000 from its coffers to pay for accommodation and extra travel costs following the controversial switch from Nottingham to Birmingham.

There were fears that team numbers would have to be whittled down after it was announced by UK Athletics that the televised meeting, which also includes the World Cross Country Championships Trials, would be moved.

But North-East officials decided to give their athletes a huge vote of confidence by bearing the additional costs involved to send an 80-strong squad to Cofton Park.

The meeting starts at 11am and it was felt that it would be asking too much of the region’s top athletes, especially the younger ones, to attempt to travel on the day.

Team manager Steve O’- Gara admitted: “It’s more hassle for us that the championships are now in Birmingham but we have to fully support our athletes so they can compete in major competitions like this and I’m sure the teams will repay the extra expense with their performances.”

The North-East won the senior men’s team trophy two years ago when O’Gara became team manager, but hopes of a repeat have been hit hard.

Three top runners – Ricky Stevenson (New Marske) and Morpeth duo Ian Hudspith and Jon Taylor – said they were unavailable and in addition there have been four enforced changes from the original nine selections.

Morpeth’s Matt Nicholson, currently leading the Start Fitness North-East Harrier League grand prix, comes in for Woodford Green’s Dave Wardle, and there are late callups for clubmate Ross Floyd and New Marske’s Dom Shaw, replacing Nick Swinburn (Morpeth), Ross Murray (Gateshead) and Patrick Martin (Sunderland). They join Chris Sampson and Lewis Timmins (Morpeth), Andy Wiles (New Marske), Ryan McLeod (Tipton) and Matt Armstrong (Coventry).

The women’s team is led by former Wallsend Harrier Sonia Samuels, who wore the colours of Sale when she came home sixth and was first North-Easterner in last month’s English National Cross Country Championships in Leeds.

She joins Chester-le-Street trio Melissa Turner, Tracy Laws and Maxine Czarnecka, Georgina Rutherford (Darlington), Carolyn Summersgill (Middlesbrough and Cleveland) and Mary Ferrier (Gateshead).

Shildon’s Kate Avery will be seeking World Championships selection in the junior women’s race.

■ New Marske’s fast-rising international middle-distance runner Ricky Stevenson will attempt to set a championship record when he defends his 3,000m title in this weekend’s British Universities and Colleges Indoor Championships at Sheffield.

The 21-year-old Teesside University student has been in the form of his life, winning the 4K race in the Great Edinburgh Cross Country International in January before finishing runner-up to Great Britain’s Andy Baddeley in the New Balance New York Indoor Mile.

■ Sunderland Harrier Brian Rushworth, who won the North-East senior men’s cross country championship a record ten times, defends his over-45 title in the British Masters Cross Country Championships in Belfast today.