Six Donegal athletes chosen for top cross country event

Six athletes from Donegal clubs have been selected to compete at the World Cross Country Tour silver level event in Belfast next month.

These athletes will be part of the Northern Ireland and Ulster teams who will toe the line at the Billy Neill MBE Country Park on January 22.

Nakita Burke (Letterkenny AC) has been named on the senior women’s team.

Burke was 16th last month to aid Letterkenny AC win the team gold at the National Senior Cross Country Championships in Santry.

Burke also won the Donegal Cross Country title recently while a new PB on the track earned her a national senior bronze in the women’s 5000m final earlier in the year.

Finn Valley AC duo Cara Laverty and Nuala Bose have been included on the under-20 women’s team.

Laverty and Bose were members of the Finn Valley AC teams who won under-20 and under-19 team titles at Irish Cross Country Championships in the last month.

Laverty is bound for a scholarship at Providence College and this year broke the Finn Valley AC 800m record, going 2:09.27.

Their Finn Valley AC colleague Oisin Toye has been selected in the under-20 team.

Caolan McFadden of Cranford AC and Letterkenny AC’s Mark Galvin are part of the under-17 boys team.

McFadden was the silver medallist recently at the Irish Under-15 Cross Country Championships, pipped only by South Sligo’s Francis Donoghue on the line.

McFadden (6th) and Galvin (10th) were in the top ten at the Irish Under-16 Cross Country Championships.