MORE than 2,000 athletes will take part in today’s North of England Cross Country Championships at Herrington Country Park, Sunderland.

Most of the North-East’s top cross country runners will be involved, though recently-crowned senior men’s champion, Morpeth Harrier Lewis Timmins, has returned to college in Tulsa following his success in the re-arranged regional championships at Temple Park, South Shields recently.

The North-East’s leading gold medal hope in the older age group is expected to be Birtley’s Durham Schools junior girls’ champion, Lydia Turner, who is unbeaten in all the region’s 800m, 1,500m and 3,000m under-15 races over the past six months, and won last summer’s Junior Great North Run two months before her 14th birthday in November.

In the senior women’s race, Durham City’s Rosie Smith will have her sights set on a medal after the disappointment of losing her North- East title to Middlesbrough Mandale’s Kirsty Legg, who is studying at Butler University, in Indianapolis. The 25-year-old former World Junior Cross Country Championships international warmed up for today’s event by winning the Scottish East District Championship at Livingstone last weekend.

Last year’s top North-East finisher, in 15th place, was Morpeth Harrier Chris Sampson after taking the North- East silver medal behind Sunderland Harrier Patrick Martin, who is expected to return to competitive action today after injury prevented him from defending his regional title at South Shields.

There will be a big regional turn out under the shadow of Penshaw Monument, with 33 North-East clubs among the 120 clubs. The ten events on the course, which hosted the 2007 National Cross Country Championships, start with the under-15 boys at 11am, with the senior men’s 12K at 3.05pm.