Ireland dominate British & Irish Masters Cross Country International in Belfast

Popular annual veteran event sees Irish athletes in fine form at the Billy Neill MBE Country Park on November 16

With a narrow win in the men’s and clear victory in the women’s contest, Ireland easily took the overall title from England, who have traditionally dominated the five-way international since the event began in 1988, only losing control post-Covid in the 2022 event.

Ireland won six of the eight women’s team events and four of the nine men’s events to England’s respective two and five.

Individually it was closer with Ireland winning nine golds to England’s eight with a single title for Wales and Scotland.

In recent years, England have gradually failed to attract all of their top masters with a combination of high costs, the counter attraction of easier and cheaper options of representing England masters on the road and a patchily attended trial race held in a league race on a busy weekend.

Next year’s British & Irish Masters International will be in Leeds with original hosts Wales declining to organise, so England should be stronger.

This year it was Northern Ireland’s turn to organise and they did a superb job at the Billy Neill MBE Country Park on the outskirts of Belfast. It was held with a good atmosphere helped by knowledgeable announcing on a spectator-friendly course.

The 2km circuit was a mostly uphill opening kilometre but featured a mostly very fast second half and was well received by most competitors.

M65 and over men and women

The first race off was for the oldest age-group competitors and held over three laps and honours were shared.

M65: 

Ifan Lloyd, who set a British M65 marathon best of 2:49:14 in Bucharest in October, dominated to gain Wales’ only gold medal of the day.

Lloyd had been a close second in 2023 at Glasgow at the age of 64 so it was no surprise he was a class apart in his new age group.

It was one of the closest ever team competitions with just seven points covering the five teams  with England a shock last.

Ireland led by second-placer Tommy Payne, a former winner of the M50s in 2009 and the M55s in 2015, were winners from the host nation who had their best event of the day with their Lawrence Johnston also 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 won the M55s three years running between 2010 and 2012, returned to the top of the podium after a twelve year gap by running away from last year’s winner multi track champion Joe Gough over the second half.

Butler, who broke his leg after his three earlier victories,  also led England to team victory with their entire quartet inside the top 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 won a M60 and two M65 titles in the colours of Ireland, gained his fourth overall win but it was close.

The home nations Terry Eakin, who had previously won a M65 and M70 gold, closed to within a second off him on a strong last lap.

Scotland had their best result 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 also down to a second here as Martin Ford gained his eighth age group title but first in a decade.

He first won back in 2004 and pushing him all the way was defending champion Robert Young who had succeeded Ford as M60 champion in 2005.

Controversially Ford was wearing a M75 age group number as he was scoring in England’s M75 team as there was no M80 team contest and many did not realise he was contesting gold in the older age group.

1 M Ford ENG 31:39; 2 R Young 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

Ireland’s Pauline Moran gained her third successive title in this age group and fifth in the last six overall events.

She won with a typically strong last lap from Scotland’s Isabel Burnett.

Jill Harrison, a former British senior 10,000m champion in 1986 the year she competed in the Commonwealth Games, took bronze.

Moran led Ireland to team 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 women generally did not have a good day in Belfast but they had their best result of the event assured Sue Haslam led team-mate Dorothy Kesterton to victory

The former fell runner had won the British title in Corwen in March and been quite close to the M70 medalists but this was her first win at this event.

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 multiple track champion Ros Tabor, who has been a regular for England over the last 20 years, thought she had gained her first victory in a very small field.

However Ireland’s Margaret Glavey who was scoring in a W70 team finished well ahead but was missed by observers and was still shown as third W70 as late as Sunday night in some results rather 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

Women’s main race

Ireland dominated up front taking four of the six individual  golds on offer in this race and five of the six team golds.

W35

Finishing fourth overall Ireland’s Sharon Rynne won a rather modestly contested age group compared to 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 overall last year and fourth W40, ran a strong last lap to pull clear and lead Ireland to a clean sweep in the age group.

BMAF reigning champion and former senior international Juliet Potter was fourth but would have medalled in the W35s.

1 F Gettings IRL 22:07; 2 C McGuigan IRL 22:12; 3 K 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 last year to a clear win as again Ireland dominated.

1 M Kenny IRL 22:41; 2 K Costello IRL 22:54; 3 D Sherwin ENG 22:59; 4 J Henderson WAL 23:18; 5 K 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

Last year England’s Kate Rennie won the W50 title finishing 16th overall. Here, with her greatest run to date, the also former W45 champion finished a superb third overall and remarkably beat the W35 and W45 champions. Only W60 Clare Elms scored a higher age-graded score among the women winners on the day than Rennie’s 90.04 per-cent.

She won by a staggering 71 seconds but Ireland still won the team event by a point from Scotland with England only third.

1 K 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 K Wilton NI 24:26

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

W55

Annette Kealy easily retained her title and gained her fifth win overall having won the W35 title way back in 2005 and led Ireland to another team gold.

England’s Kate Ramsey, a 16:04.46 5000m performer back in 2006 which still ranks in the all-time masters top 10 was 42 seconds back in second but England were surprisingly out of the medals.

1 A Kealy IRL 23:58; 2 K 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 successful 2024 as she gained her sixth victory and twelfth individual medal and fourteenth team medal as she led England to their only victory in the main women’s race.

Short of training after focusing on track through to September and a niggling foot problem since, she eased round initially watchful of fellow multiple world record-breaker Fiona Matheson.

The Scot, who, with eight previous wins and the W60 winner in 2022 and 2023, was the equal most successful competitor in action in Belfast male or female, briefly led Elms before the English runner eased away to win by 20 seconds.

Curiously England’s three scorers Elms, Monica Williamson and Caroline Wood 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 K 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

Ireland didn’t have it all their way in these three age groups as they won only one of the three team contests.

M50

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

English trials winner Chris Blackburn made an exciting international debut with a strong last lap to finish second but Ireland still won comfortably.

In fourth place and also in his first Masters International was Gareth Raven, who was third in the English senior National 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 mixed  it with the leading M50s before slowing slightly on the final lap.

Northern Ireland’s Eamon White, matched his second place from 2019 with a strong last lap to defeat his conqueror from five years ago Tim Hartley.

The Notts AC athlete had to settle for third  to go with his eight previous victories which first go back to the 2008 M40 race but he did lead England to victory.

Northern Ireland took silvers as despite Kennedy’s win, Ireland finished out of the medals for the only time on the day in the 17 team competitions though it was only on countback which was down to the three second gap between the 13th and 14th runner Scotland’s Walter Henderson and Ireland’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 Booth 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 international win to match his M55 victory in Aintree in 2019.

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

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

Hughes will be in the M65s next year.

England took team honours easily.

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 final international race of the day caused a surprise of sorts but though Ireland won two team events they failed to gain an individual victory in the last three age groups.

M35

Last year Lee Gratton dominated winning by 20 seconds and he followed that up with a 80 second victory in the BMAF Championships, a 11th in September’s senior English National and a big win in the English Trials.

However, this time in the four lap 8km race Scotland’s Kevin Campbell kept pace with him.

Campbell wouldn’t have been considered by many pre race as he had no cross country form and just four races listed in Power of 10 in the last seven years.

One of those results though was a 29:50 10km in June where he finished just a few seconds behind Callum Hawkins which was enough to gain selection despite a lack of form over the country. His  last race though a 71:19 half marathon in Musselburgh doesn’t look that impressive until you know he ran in fancy dress- a full bear costume!

Campbell had no idea who Gratton was or his reputation and noting a potential weakness after the long climb on the first half of the lap he attacked immediately on the long final descent and opened a gap.

The former Army athlete clearly has huge potential and should challenge for major honours on the country this winter in Scotland though he says his major aim is the Manchester Marathon in April.

Gratton was a clear second while Jack Ramm’s final fast descent got him a bronze in his international debut as he headed his Dulwich Runner team-mate Ed Chuck as England won at a canter with four in the top five with probably their strongest ever team in an age group in a category they have often struggled.

1 K 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 K Rogers IRL 25:52

M40

James Connor, a 2:18 marathoner in his youth and the 2022 Reading Half-Marathon winner, was inexplicably overlooked for England selection for this event a few years ago but he made the most of his chance here with an exciting win.

Last year’s champion Darrell Hastie of Scotland looked the favourite halfway but Connor’s last lap push gave him a five second victory.

With three in six Scotland looked poised for a rare team win but Ireland’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

Finishing third overall and ahead of the M40 winner, Alastair Watson produced the men’s performance of the day with a 92.16 age graded performance with only W60 runner-up Matheson scoring higher (94.21%).

Last year Watson bettered the M45 world 5000m record with a 14:23.08 though it was never ratified and he has been in similar form this year with a 14:27 on the road.

He finished strongly here in his first appearance in the event and he won by 51 seconds though Ireland took the team honours by a single point with both teams packing their scoring quartet in the top 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

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

Overall women 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

Women’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

Men’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

Men’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 provided full stats of all winners since 1995 and the athletes with the most wins are:

Men:
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 no barrier for Colin Spivey

Women:
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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