Editing North East England (section)

===Athletics===
[[Athletics (sport)|Athletics]] is a sport of rising popularity since the olympic and international success of Northeast athletes [[Brendan Foster]] in the 1970s and [[Steve Cram]] in the 1980s. Both won international medals and broke world records in middle and long-distance running. Brendan Foster established the annual [[Great North Run]], one of the best known half marathons in which thousands of participants run from Newcastle to South Shields. Brendan Foster, a former school teacher in this region, is also recognised as the driving force behind the creation of the [[Gateshead International Stadium|Gateshead International Athletics Stadium]] which now regularly hosts International Athletics meets and other sporting events.
 
In 2013 the 33rd [[Great North Run]] had 56,000 participants most of whom were raising money for charity. The elite races had Olympic gold medalists and world champion long-distance runners participating including in the men's race, [[Mo Farah]], [[Kenenisa Bekele]] and a regular supporter of the event [[Haile Gebrselassie]]. Ethiopian Bekele won the men's event just ahead of Farah. Kenya's [[Priscah Jeptoo]] came first the women's race and multi Olympic gold medalist [[David Weir (athlete)|David Weir]] won the wheelchair event.<ref>{{cite news|publisher=British Broadcasting Corp|title=Great North Run: Mo Farah narrowly beaten as thousands run|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-24081957|date=15 September 2013|access-date=18 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130918165600/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-24081957|archive-date=18 September 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> The founder of the event, [[Brendan Foster]] was reported to be looking forward to 2014 when the Great North Run was scheduled to have its millionth finisher – becoming the first [[IAAF|International Athletics Association]] Event (IAAF) event in the world to reach such a milestone.<ref>{{cite news|first=Mike|last=Kelly|publisher=The Journal|title=Great North Run: The event that continues to give|url=http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/great-north-run-event-continues-6026465|date=16 September 2013|access-date=18 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130918061804/http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/great-north-run-event-continues-6026465|archive-date=18 September 2013}}</ref>

The 2014 Great North Run made history with [[Mo Farah]] winning the men's race in a new personal best of just 1 hour. He was challenged all the way but he held off strong competition from Kenya's Mike Kigen.<ref>{{cite news|title=Great North Run 2014: Mo Farah claims first victory|work=BBC Sport|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/29074934|access-date=11 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910230550/http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/29074934|archive-date=10 September 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> The millionth finisher of the race was 51-year-old Tracey Cramond of Darlington, who ran to raise funds for the local Teesside charity Butterwick Hospice.<ref>{{cite news|first=Dave|last=Robson|title=Millionth finisher Tracey relives her Great North Run triumph for Stockton hospice|publisher=GazetteLive|url=http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/millionth-finisher-tracey-relives-great-7738455|date=8 September 2014|access-date=11 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910040642/http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/millionth-finisher-tracey-relives-great-7738455|archive-date=10 September 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>