Donegal athletes among the medals at British & Irish Masters Cross Country

There were plenty of medals for Donegal athletes at the British and Irish Masters Cross Country International in Leeds on Saturday.

Pauric McKinney of Inishowen AC, Finn Valley AC trio Kay Byrne, Noeleen Scanlan and Catriona Devine, Anthony Doherty from Milford AC and Rosses AC’s Helen McCready were all among the medals.

McKinney was the M60 gold medallist, taking victory from England’s Andrew Leach at Roundhay Park.

McKinney’s superb running guided the Ireland M60 team to silvers as he was joined by Sean McCreey and Fintan Rice, finishing three points behind England, led by Leach.

Scanlan had an excellent outing for silver in the W40 category.

The Finn Valley AC athlete was second only to Gemma Steel. The English athlete is a five-time European gold medallist and took victory in the W40 race while Scanlan did well to edge out Sara Green from Scotland and grab the individual silver.

Scanlan’s run led the Ireland W450s to silver, behind England.

McCready also scored for the Irish W40 team, finishing in 12th spot and they were joined by Caroline Harney Ayton (8) and Eimear O’Leary (14).

Devine and Byrne medalled at the recent European Masters Championships in Madeira and added further medals here.

Devine placed third in the W50 race, leading Ireland to team bronze too, aided by Breda Gaffney (5), Adele Walsh (11) and Ann-Marie Connellan (15).

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Byrne landed bronze in the W60 race and helped Ireland to the team gold medals, joined by Niamh O’Sullivan in second and Shanon Cahill in sixth.

Doherty was ninth in the ninth in the M55 race with Ireland taking team bronze, Ronan O’Reilly in seventh and Patrick Cullenton in 12th also scoring.