Dixon a dazzler with new course record as Strollers secure silver medals

Just back from four weeks of high altitude training in Iten, Kenya, the 37-year-old smashed the veterans’ over-35 course record in helping her club, Sunderland Strollers, to second place in the four-stage relay.

Running the first leg, she stormed round the two-lap course of approximately 2.22 miles in 11min 33sec to shatter the previous best of Elswick’s Justina Heslop (12.13) to bring the Strollers into first place, a staggering 45 seconds ahead of Durham’s international Rosie Smith.

Dixon, as a measure of her performance, beat Morpeth’s Laura Weightman, the Commonwealth silver and European 1500m bronze medallist, to the fastest overall women’s time.

Weightman was in the winning Morpeth senior women’s team, where she clocked 11.48 on the second leg. Her record stands at 11.22.

While there is no comparison for the distance she ran on Saturday to that of the marathon, it does show that Dixon is in good form as she enters the final phase of her marathon training before her important date in London on April 24.

The Strollers team which finished second behind North Shields was Dixon, Ashleigh Bennett (14.18), Clare Baharie (15.20) and Victoria Booth (15.24).

The Sunderland Harriers women’s team, which finished sixth, was Nicola Woodword (14.03), Emma North (15.56), Colleen Compson (15.25) and Judith Thirlwell (14.58).

In the senior women’s relay, Sunderland Harriers were ninth, thanks to Michelle Avery (13.53), Alice Smith (14.38), Sarah O’Mahoney (14.53) and Maria Davis (16.36).

The Strollers finished 10th through Gillian Ritchie (14.22), Kay Snowball (14.52), Jenna Maynard (15.06) and Vanessa Hogan (15.55).

England junior cross country international, Sunderland’s Sophie Burnett, on the last leg for Birtley, clocked 12.43 to steer her club into second place.