Sunderland Harriers won one gold, two silvers and one bronze medal in the Durham City Harriers’ Summer Cross Country Relays at Maiden Castle.
The bumper medal haul came in front of a massive 164 teams finishing the two 3x3000m events.
The Wearsiders’ senior team were the first off and they came close to winning their event, losing out to Tyne Bridge Harriers by just 10 seconds.
Lead-off man Andy Powell finished third (9min 17sec) to set the team up for a positive result.
Next off was Oliver James, who put the royal blue vests into the lead with his 9.06 clocking. But anchor Michael Wilson, well short of racing fitness, slipped to second after his 9.28 stint.
Houghton Harriers ran well for fifth place after junior Alex Brown recorded the second fastest time of the day on winning the opening leg (9.05).
His club-mates were Lee Dover (9.36) and Shawn Kerry (11.13).
Tyne Bridge Harrier James Dunce was the fastest runner on the course, clocking 8.59, with Sunderland Harrier Oliver James was the third quickest.
Sunderland Harriers’ Over-35 veteran team won their event after Tim Field opened with 10.25 before Paul Blakey (9.47) missed the finishing funnel and had to dive under the tape to be recorded.
This added five valuable seconds to anchorman Ian Dixon’s time, who found himself sharing the fastest time with North Shields athlete Graeme Cook’s (9.36) in bringing Sunderland into first.
The Sunderland women’s teams not to be outdone and they saw their seniors finish second to Birtley, for whom Lydia Turner was the fastest runner on show (10.06)
The Sunderland team had Alice Smith, with the third best time (11.10), followed by Amy Callaghan (12.34) and a good run from Jess Fox (11.39).
The veterans were third thanks to Jacqueline Etherington (11.26), Nikki Woodward (11.56) and Colleen Compson (12.57).
Yesterday’s Darlington town centre 10k saw a new course record set, with Dominic Shaw, second in the Sunderland 5k in July, winning £1100 for his performance.
The New Marske runner took four seconds off the old mark to clock 30.02 to win the £500 bonus to add to his £600 for winning the race....