ETHIOPIAN Yared Hagos collected the £150 first prize and a bonus of £100 for a sub-49 minutes run as he won the North of England ten mile championship by nearly three minutes in the 60th Brampton-Carlisle road race.

Newcastle-based Hagos clocked a personal-best 47 mins 51 secs - 72 seconds faster than his record-breaking run in this month's Derwentwater 10 - with the fourth fastest run in the history of the UK's oldest race over the distance.

Hagos, 30, has won 12 of his 13 races this year, setting a new record in the Darlington 10K in August, and the only time he has not headed the field was in September's Great North Run, where he finished eighth against top class international competition.

Hagos, who joined the Bradford Airedale club when he moved from Addis Ababa with the support of the non-profitmaking organisation Running Across Borders, is now expected join Wallsend Harriers following the help and advice he has received while settling on Tyneside from one of its leading members, Steve O'Gara, winner of the first Junior Great North Run in 1989.

Hagos was far too strong and fast for his rivals in Cumbria, crossing the finish line 2 mins 51 secs ahead of the runner-up, Cambuslang's Stuart Gibson, second in this summer's Sunderland City 10K, with Morpeth's Ian Harding four seconds behind in third place.

Wallsend Harrier Danielle Hodkinson won the women's race in 58 mins 33 secs from Chester-le-Street's former North-East Harrier League champion Claire Simpson, who clocked 60 minutes exactly.

Results - Men: 1 Yared Hagos (Wallsend) 47mins 51secs; 2 S Gibson (Cambuslang) 50.42; 3 I Harding (Morpeth) 50.46; 4 J Douglas (Border) 51.04; 5 M Crawley (Durham City) 51.16; 6 J Buis (Heaton) 52.59; 7 D Turnbull (Holmfirth) 53.04; 8 J Kevan (Horwich) 53.27; 9 C Franks (Gateshead) 54.22; 10 K Bell (Border) 54.31.

Women: 1 D Hodgkinson (Wallsend) 58.33; 2 C Simpson (Chester-le-Street) 60.00; 3 S Rogers (Walls) 61.16; 4 A Snook (Gates) 61.22; 5 M Holt (Sunderland) 61.42.

n Britain's Mara Yamauchi achieved the qualifying time for the London Olympics after finishing third in the Yokohama marathon.

Yamauchi was sixth at the last Olympics in Beijing, but has been plagued by illness and injury recently and was competing in her first marathon for more than a year.

The 38-year-old clocked a time of two hours 27 minutes 24 seconds to finish less than a minute behind winner Ryoko Kizaki of Japan, who was 17 seconds clear of compatriot Yoshimi Ozaki.

Yamauchi's time was comfortably inside the Olympic 'A' standard of two hours 31 minutes.