Eire dominate British & Irish Masters Cross Nation Worldwide in Belfast

Fashionable annual veteran occasion sees Irish athletes in wonderful kind on the Billy Neill MBE Nation Park on November 16

With a slender win within the males’s and clear victory within the ladies’s contest, Eire simply took the general title from England, who’ve historically dominated the five-way worldwide because the occasion started in 1988, solely dropping management post-Covid within the 2022 occasion.

Eire received six of the eight ladies’s crew occasions and 4 of the 9 males’s occasions to England’s respective two and 5.

Individually it was nearer with Eire successful 9 golds to England’s eight with a single title for Wales and Scotland.

Lately, England have steadily failed to draw all of their high masters with a mixture of excessive prices, the counter attraction of simpler and cheaper choices of representing England masters on the street and a patchily attended trial race held in a league race on a busy weekend.

Subsequent yr’s British & Irish Masters Worldwide will probably be in Leeds with unique hosts Wales declining to organise, so England must be stronger.

This yr it was Northern Eire’s flip to organise and so they did an outstanding job on the Billy Neill MBE Nation Park on the outskirts of Belfast. It was held with an excellent ambiance helped by educated asserting on a spectator-friendly course.

The 2km circuit was a principally uphill opening kilometre however featured a principally very quick second half and was properly obtained by most rivals.

M65 and over women and men

The primary race off was for the oldest age-group rivals and held over three laps and honours had been shared.

M65: 

Ifan Lloyd, who set a British M65 marathon finest of two:49:14 in Bucharest in October, dominated to achieve Wales’ solely gold medal of the day.

Lloyd had been a detailed second in 2023 at Glasgow on the age of 64 so it was no shock he was a category aside in his new age group.

It was one of many closest ever crew competitions with simply seven factors protecting the 5 groups  with England a shock final.

Eire led by second-placer Tommy Payne, a former winner of the M50s in 2009 and the M55s in 2015, had been winners from the host nation who had their finest occasion of the day with their Lawrence Johnston additionally taking bronze.

1 I Lloyd WAL 23:07; 2 T Payne IRL 23:22; 3 L Johnston NI 23:23; 4 C Feechan SCO 23:35; 5 M Mawhinney NI 23:56; 6 P Morrison ENG 23:59

TEAM: IRL 21; 2 NI 25; 3 SCO 26; 4 WAL 26; 5 ENG 28

M70

David Butler, who received the M55s three years operating between 2010 and 2012, returned to the highest of the rostrum after a twelve yr hole by operating away from final yr’s winner multi monitor champion Joe Gough over the second half.

Butler, who broke his leg after his three earlier victories,  additionally led England to crew victory with their total quartet inside the highest six.

1 D Butler ENG 24:55; 2 J Gough IRL 25:23; 3 D Bedwell ENG 25:34; 4 A Martin SCO 25:39; 5 T Hutchison ENG 25:57; 6 P Hough ENG 26:07

TEAM: 1 ENG 9; 2 IRL 17; 3 NI 30; 4 SCO 33; 5 WAL 51

M75

Former Herne Hill Harrier Martin McEvilly who had received a M60 and two M65 titles within the colors of Eire, gained his fourth total win but it surely was shut.

The house nations Terry Eakin, who had beforehand received a M65 and M70 gold, closed to inside a second off him on a robust final lap.

Scotland had their finest results of the day as three in six gave them victory led by bronze medallist Alex Sutherland.

1 M McEvilly IRL 27:08; 2 T Eakin NI 27:09; 3 A Sutherland SCO 28:30; 4 A Daley ENG 30:31; 5 N Baillie SCO 31:19; 6 R Donachie SCO 31:37

TEAM: 1 SCO 14: 2 ENG 20; 3 IRL 24; 4 NI 35

M80

It was additionally all the way down to a second right here as Martin Ford gained his eighth age group title however first in a decade.

He first received again in 2004 and pushing him all the best way was defending champion Robert Younger who had succeeded Ford as M60 champion in 2005.

Controversially Ford was carrying a M75 age group quantity as he was scoring in England’s M75 crew as there was no M80 crew contest and lots of didn’t realise he was contesting gold within the older age group.

1 M Ford ENG 31:39; 2 R Younger SCO 31:40; 3 M Johnson ENG 33:46; 4 J Adgey NIR 35:40; 5 J Steward IRL 36:03; 6 P Brennan ENG 38:03

W65

Eire’s Pauline Moran gained her third successive title on this age group and fifth within the final six total occasions.

She received with a usually sturdy final lap from Scotland’s Isabel Burnett.

Jill Harrison, a former British senior 10,000m champion in 1986 the yr she competed within the Commonwealth Video games, took bronze.

Moran led Eire to crew gold.

1 P Moran IRL 27:27; 2 I Burnett SCO 27:36; 3 J Harrison ENG 27:46; 4 S Jones IRL 28:00; 5 S Clarke ENG 29:04; 5 G Greennan IRL 29:05

TEAM: 1 IRL 11; 2 ENG 15; 3 SCO 21; 4 NI 36; 5 WAL 51

W70

English ladies typically didn’t have an excellent day in Belfast however they’d their finest results of the occasion assured Sue Haslam led team-mate Dorothy Kesterton to victory

The previous fell runner had received the British title in Corwen in March and been fairly near the M70 medalists however this was her first win at this occasion.

1 S Haslam ENG 28:55; 2 D Kesterton ENG 29:03; 3 B McCabe IRL 30:14; 4 M Statham-Berry ENG 30:35; 5 S Linklater SCO 30:39; 6 E Kenny IRL 30:43

TEAM: 1 ENG 8; 2 IRL 14; 3 SCO 23

W75

Former a number of monitor champion Ros Tabor, who has been an everyday for England over the past 20 years, thought she had gained her first victory in a really small area.

Nonetheless Eire’s Margaret Glavey who was scoring in a W70 crew completed properly forward however was missed by observers and was nonetheless proven as third W70 as late as Sunday evening in some outcomes moderately than W75 champion.

1 M Glavey IRL 29:42 ; 2 R Tabor ENG 34:25; 3 D Henderson SCO 37:49; 4 B Quinn NIR 39:22

Girls’s fundamental race

Eire dominated up entrance taking 4 of the six particular person  golds on supply on this race and 5 of the six crew golds.

W35

Ending fourth total Eire’s Sharon Rynne received a moderately modestly contested age group in comparison with the older W40s.

1 S Rynne IRL 22:28; 2 C Thornton IRL 22:32; 3 J Wetton SCO 22:42; 4 T Rogers ENG 22:46; 5 B Kelly IRL 22:49; 6 N Sutton ENG 22:50

TEAM: 1 IRL 8; 2 ENG 20; 3 NIR 24; 4 SCO 30; 5 WAL 48

W40

Fiona Gettings, seventh total final yr and fourth W40, ran a robust final lap to drag clear and lead Eire to a clear sweep within the age group.

BMAF reigning champion and former senior worldwide Juliet Potter was fourth however would have medalled within the W35s.

1 F Gettings IRL 22:07; 2 C McGuigan IRL 22:12; 3 Ok Purcell IRL 22:31; 4 Juliet Potter ENG 22:39; 5 M Sandison SCO 22:42; 6 H McGready IRL 22:45; 7 R Luxton ENG 22:46

TEAM: 1 IRL 6; 2 ENG 20; 3 SCO 25; 4 NI 45; 5 WAL 45

W45

Michelle Kenny, the daughter of 2022 W70 winner Eileen, went from fifth W40 final yr to a transparent win as once more Eire dominated.

1 M Kenny IRL 22:41; 2 Ok Costello IRL 22:54; 3 D Sherwin ENG 22:59; 4 J Henderson WAL 23:18; 5 Ok Kelly SCO 23:19; 6 D Toner IRL 23:20

TEAM: 1 IRL 9; 2 ENG 19; 3 SCO 33; 4 WAL 36; 5 NI 37

W50

Final yr England’s Kate Rennie received the W50 title ending sixteenth total. Right here, together with her biggest run thus far, the additionally former W45 champion completed an outstanding third total and remarkably beat the W35 and W45 champions. Solely W60 Clare Elms scored the next age-graded rating among the many ladies winners on the day than Rennie’s 90.04 per-cent.

She received by a staggering 71 seconds however Eire nonetheless received the crew occasion by a degree from Scotland with England solely third.

1 Ok Rennie ENG 22:19; 2 C Devine IRL 23:30; 3 A Mason SCO 23:44; 4 B Gaffney IRL 24:08; 5 C Heasman SCO 24:09; 6 Ok Wilton NI 24:26

TEAM: 1 IRL 14; 2 SCO 15; 3 ENG 22; 4 NI 33; 5 WAL 51

W55

Annette Kealy simply retained her title and gained her fifth win total having received the W35 title method again in 2005 and led Eire to a different crew gold.

England’s Kate Ramsey, a 16:04.46 5000m performer again in 2006 which nonetheless ranks within the all-time masters high 10 was 42 seconds again in second however England had been surprisingly out of the medals.

1 A Kealy IRL 23:58; 2 Ok Ramsey ENG 24:40; 3 J Dunbar SCO 24:57; 4 S O’Kane NI 25:16; 5 M Johnston IRL 25:22; 6 D Rushman NI 25:36

TEAM: 1 IRL 13; 2 SCO 22; 3 NI 22; 4 ENG 26

W60

Clare Elms continued her profitable 2024 as she gained her sixth victory and twelfth particular person medal and fourteenth crew medal as she led England to their solely victory in the principle ladies’s race.

Wanting coaching after specializing in monitor by to September and a niggling foot drawback since, she eased spherical initially watchful of fellow a number of world record-breaker Fiona Matheson.

The Scot, who, with eight earlier wins and the W60 winner in 2022 and 2023, was the equal most profitable competitor in motion in Belfast male or feminine, briefly led Elms earlier than the English runner eased away to win by 20 seconds.

Curiously England’s three scorers Elms, Monica Williamson and Caroline Wooden matched their first, fifth and seventh from their W55 win from 2019.

1 C Elms ENG 24:16; 2 F Matheson SCO 24:36; 3 Ok Byrne IRL 25:47; 4 C Moss SCO 25:57; 5 M Williamson ENG 26:18; 6 S Heath WAL 26:22

TEAM: 1 ENG 13; 2 SCO 16; 3 IRL 23; 4 WAL 37; 5 NI 43

M50+ race

Eire didn’t have all of it their method in these three age teams as they received solely one of many three crew contests.

M50

Eire’s Declan Toal retained his title with a dominating run.

English trials winner Chris Blackburn made an thrilling worldwide debut with a robust final lap to complete second however Eire nonetheless received comfortably.

In fourth place and likewise in his first Masters Worldwide was Gareth Raven, who was third within the English senior Nationwide in Sunderland in 2007.

1 D Toal IRL 27:02; 2 C Blackburn ENG 27:14; 3 S Somerset IRL 27:18; 4 G Raven ENG 27:37; 5 M McKenna NI 27:39; 6 M Harrington IRL 27:45

TEAM: 1 IRL 20; 2 ENG 27; 3 NI 50; 4 SCO 61; 5 WAL 86

M55

Des Kennedy dominated the age group as he blended  it with the main M50s earlier than slowing barely on the ultimate lap.

Northern Eire’s Eamon White, matched his second place from 2019 with a robust final lap to defeat his conqueror from 5 years in the past Tim Hartley.

The Notts AC athlete needed to accept third  to go together with his eight earlier victories which first return to the 2008 M40 race however he did lead England to victory.

Northern Eire took silvers as regardless of Kennedy’s win, Eire completed out of the medals for the one time on the day within the 17 crew competitions although it was solely on countback which was all the way down to the three second hole between the thirteenth and 14th runner Scotland’s Walter Henderson and Eire’s Anthony Doherty.

1 D Kennedy IRL 27:22; 2 E White NI 27:34; 3 T Hartley ENG 27:40; 4 R Paterson SCO 28:14; 5 T Sales space ENG 28:21; 6 F Rafferty ENG 28:27

TEAM: 1 ENG 14; 2 NI 17; 3 SCO 26; 4 IRL 26; 5 WAL 54

M60

World Masters 5000m and 10km champion Andrew Leach gained his second worldwide win to match his M55 victory in Aintree in 2019.

European Masters indoor 3000m champion Chris Upson of Scotland was a really clear second.

Former world champion Ben Reynolds and marathon sensation Tommy Hughes (2:30:02 on the age of 62) repeated their battle for medals in 2019 however this time Reynolds proved the stronger on the final lap in most likely the highest quality age group of the day to repeat his Aintree bronze.

Hughes will probably be within the M65s subsequent yr.

England took crew honours simply.

1 A Leach ENG 28:47: 2 C Upson SCO 29:09; 3 B Reynolds ENG 30:03; 4 T Hughes IRL 30:14; 5 M Cursons ENG 30:20; 6 D Warren WAL 30:28

TEAM: 1 ENG 9; 2 IRL 21 ;3 SCO 23; 4 WAL 38; 5 NI 45

M35-45 races

The ultimate worldwide race of the day induced a shock of kinds however although Eire received two crew occasions they failed to achieve a person victory within the final three age teams.

M35

Final yr Lee Gratton dominated successful by 20 seconds and he adopted that up with a 80 second victory within the BMAF Championships, a eleventh in September’s senior English Nationwide and an enormous win within the English Trials.

Nonetheless, this time within the 4 lap 8km race Scotland’s Kevin Campbell saved tempo with him.

Campbell wouldn’t have been thought-about by many pre race as he had no cross nation kind and simply 4 races listed in Energy of 10 within the final seven years.

A type of outcomes although was a 29:50 10km in June the place he completed just some seconds behind Callum Hawkins which was sufficient to achieve choice regardless of an absence of kind over the nation. His  final race although a 71:19 half marathon in Musselburgh doesn’t look that spectacular till he ran in fancy dress- a full bear costume!

Campbell had no concept who Gratton was or his popularity and noting a possible weak point after the lengthy climb on the primary half of the lap he attacked instantly on the lengthy ultimate descent and opened a spot.

The previous Military athlete clearly has large potential and may problem for main honours on the nation this winter in Scotland although he says his main goal is the Manchester Marathon in April.

Gratton was a transparent second whereas Jack Ramm’s ultimate quick descent acquired him a bronze in his worldwide debut as he headed his Dulwich Runner team-mate Ed Chuck as England received at a canter with 4 within the high 5 with most likely their strongest ever crew in an age group in a class they’ve usually struggled.

1 Ok Campbell SCO 24:46; 2 L Gratton ENG 24:53; 3 J Ramm ENG 25:13; 4 E Chuck ENG 25:22; 5 B Robinson ENG 25:25; 6 Ok Rogers IRL 25:52

M40

James Connor, a 2:18 marathoner in his youth and the 2022 Studying Half-Marathon winner, was inexplicably ignored for England choice for this occasion a couple of years in the past however he made probably the most of his probability right here with an thrilling win.

Final yr’s champion Darrell Hastie of Scotland regarded the favorite midway however Connor’s final lap push gave him a 5 second victory.

With three in six Scotland regarded poised for a uncommon crew win however Eire’s fourth scorer held the sway.

1 J Connor ENG 25:18; 2 D Hastie SCO 25:23; 3 E Mullan IRL 25:26; 4 I Whitaker SCO 25:37; 5 E Flynn IRL 25:39; 6 G Yates SCO 25:57

TEAM: 1 IRL 25; 2 SCO 27; 3 ENG 30; 4 WAL 78; 5 NI 83

M45

Ending third total and forward of the M40 winner, Alastair Watson produced the boys’s efficiency of the day with a 92.16 age graded efficiency with solely W60 runner-up Matheson scoring larger (94.21%).

Final yr Watson bettered the M45 world 5000m file with a 14:23.08 although it was by no means ratified and he has been in comparable kind this yr with a 14:27 on the street.

He completed strongly right here in his first look within the occasion and he received by 51 seconds although Eire took the crew honours by a single level with each groups packing their scoring quartet within the high 10.

1 A Watson ENG 25:03; 2 M Ryan IRL 25:54; 3 A Wallace IRL 25:59; 4 P Tedd ENG 26:36; 5 N Lafferty SCO 26:37; 6 B Twohig IRL 26:40

TEAM: 1 IRL 21; 2 ENG 22; 3 SCO 48; 4 NI 76

Total males TEAM: 1 IRL 34; 2 ENG 33; 3 SCO 25; 4 NI 19; 5 WAL 9

Total ladies TEAM: 1 IRL 34; 2 ENG 28; 3 SCO 24; 4 NI 13; 5 WAL 7

OVERALL: 1 IRL 68; 2 ENG 61; 3 SCO 48; 4 NI 32; 5 WAL 16

Open race

Girls’s 6km:

1 A Robinson ENG W35 23:37; 2 Jane Potter ENG W40 24:01; 3 J Franklin ENG W45 24:42

W55: 1 F Prue NI 25:28

W60: 1 T Gibson ENG 29:43

W65: 1 P Barber ENG 30:23

Males’s 6km: 1 J Gallagher NI M65 27:00; 2 S McCauley M65 27:54; 3 S Smythe M65 28:27

M70: S Scott 29:57

Males’s 8km: 1 D Awde ENG M35 26:34; 2 G Browne ENG M35 26:49; 3 R Coen ENG M45 28:11

M55: 1 F Campbell ENG 30:41

Martin Duff has supplied full stats of all winners since 1995 and the athletes with probably the most wins are:

Males:
Mike Hager ENG 12
Tim Hartley ENG 8
Martin Ford ENG 7
Nigel Gates ENG 6
Fred Gibbs ENG 6
Austin Davies WAL 4
Alun Roper WAL 4
Rob Atkinson ENG 4
David Butler ENG 4
Martin McEvilly IRL 4

READ MORE: Age is not any barrier for Colin Spivey

Girls:
Angela Copson ENG 14
Carmel Parnell IRL 11
Karen Marshall NI 9
Claire Martin ENG 8
Fiona Matheson SCO 8
Clare Elms ENG 6
Anne Keenan-Buckley IRL 5
Niamh O’Sullivan IRL 5
Pat Gallagher WAL 5
Pauline Moran IRL 5
Annette Kealy IRL 5

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