The UK and Ireland cross country international was held last weekend over the famous Aintree Racecourse. NI Masters team performed extremely well against big fields of thoroughbred runners representing the five nations. The team got off to an excellent start with gold medal wins for Terry Eakin (M70 North Down) and Brigid Quinn (W75 Ballymena) in the first race of the day.
The main women’s race saw a W35 bronze medal for the NI team of Natalie Hall, Amy Bulman, Gemma McDonald and Eva Kitchen.
Next up on the race-card was the M50-M60 race. David Clarke won individual M60 bronze, only 15 seconds off gold. The M50 team put in a superb performance to take team gold (Eamon White, Steve Cairns, Gary Henderson, Justin Reid, Duncan Bell & Neil Cardy). Eamon was 2nd and Steve 3rd against formidable opposition. The final championship race saw a brilliant M35 win for Mark McKinstry. Some punters had said that Mark had taken the opposition by surprise last year in Swansea when they allowed him to establish an early lead. This year he did exactly the same thing again and came home an amazing 33 seconds clear of the next runner.
Full results: http://bmaf.org.uk/british-and-irish-masters-cross-country-international/
