NIYAL Final – Full report

Well done to all the athletes of the junior club on a fantastic all round performance on Saturday which saw City of Lisburn AC secure 2nd place in the NIYAL final and with it the right to represent N.Ireland at the National Auxiliary UKYAL Final in Birmingham on 03 September.

The U13 girls won their section overall. Phoebe Tan collected the Athlete of the Match (AOTM) award for her superb 1.43m high jump plus two silvers and a brilliant relay leg. Madison Bowyer’s 4:10 1200m was the other outstanding performance in that age group, a race she won by 32 seconds and she later won the B high jump in a 1.25m PB. Therese Hillman’s hurdling is improving all the time and she won gold in style plus two more in the 75m and relay. All-rounder Sarah Woods was another to take home three medals, which included wins in the B long jump, a huge PB of 7.21m for gold in the B shot and a hurdles silver. This left her as the only girl in the entire squad to win medals on the track, a throw and a jump. Jodie Savage showed superb technique to take the A shot with a big final round PB of 7.32m. Niamh Madden took a fine silver in the 800m and anchored the relay team to gold, while Rebekah Douglas showed great pace to take bronze in the A 150m and she ran her usual excellent first leg in the relay.

The U15 girls won their section by a large margin. Kathryn Case was our AOTM here, taking home three golds which included big PBs to win the A shot (8.77m) and A discus and later winning the B long jump. Natalja Ritchie was another to take home three golds after good wins in the A hammer plus B shot and discus. Aoife Doherty was in good form, winning the B hammer and taking a surprise bronze in the B javelin. Katie Larmour joined the exclusive “three golds” club after her usual excellent display in the sprints, winning the 100m A, B 200m and another flying first leg in the relay. Jessica McMaster won the B hurdles, missed gold by just 1cm in the A long jump and took relay gold. Jane Anderson’s B 100m win in a 13.48s PB was extremely impressive while Erin Quinn cruised to victory in the A 200m. Caitlin Rose showed what a valuable member of the squad she is with high jump B gold, 800m B bronze and a PB in the A javelin. The hurdling of Megan Marrs was sheer class as she won gold in an electric PB of 12.35s and she also won the A high jump in 1.50m. Rounding off the middle distance events there were medals for Natalie Fair (800m A bronze), Zoe Carruthers (1500m A bronze) plus Lauren Gourley (1500 B silver). In the U15 4x100m all eyes were on the clock after two near misses at the league record earlier this season. The team of Katie, Jessica, Jane and Erin ran brilliantly to win by over 4 seconds but unfortunately just missed the record again with 51.94s.

The U17 girls were a fine 2nd place overall in their category. Ruth Hewlett took home the AOTM T-shirt and three golds in the B hammer, shot and discus. Amanda Mitchell had a great day too with silvers in the A shot, discus and hammer including a PB in the latter of 24.00m. Aoibhin McManus took home a superb haul of three golds and a silver, which included coming within 10 cms of the league record in the long jump. She also was 2nd in the A 100m and had a great PB of 44.1s to win the A 300m. Katie McComb won the A 100m. Debutant Ella McCathie was second in the B 200m and threw a fine PB in the B javelin. Rebecca Harvey took silver in the A 1500m and bronze in the B javelin. Helen Dawson had a successful day with three individual medals including silvers at 200m and 300m plus bronze at high jump. Jenny Skelly showed her versatility with medals in the A hurdles and triple jump plus a fine gold in the B long jump. Finally Aoibhin, Helen, Jenny and Katie combined for an excellent win in the 4x100m.

The U13 boys were not to be out-done by the girls and also won their category overall! Thomas Quinn was our AOTM here, taking home three golds after wins in the B high jump, hurdles and long jump. Cameron Kelly has arguably been our athlete of the season in this age group and he had wins here in the A hurdles, high jump and shot. Mathew Robinson threw a PB for gold in the B shot. Louis McGuckian had a successful day, with 3 individual silvers from the A sprints and long jump. Sean Terek took bronze in the A 800m while Matthew Neill was a hero to finish the 1500m and take bronze after an attack of cramp early in the race. Finally the brave Matthew plus Louis, Cameron and Mathew Robinson took bronze in the relay.

The U15 boys were missing a number of squad members who were on holiday but still finished a respectable 3rd place overall in their section. Ben Fisher was our AOTM here after taking three individual medals including B hurdles gold, A long jump silver and B 100m silver. Andrew Hutchinson managed a couple of events before heading for the boat to the Scottish junior champs, winning the A hurdles and high jump with ease. Jack Howard took good points in the A sprints, with Sam Wallace picking up bronzes in the B 200m and shot. Jonny Whan took a good silver in the A 1500m with Enda Kelly-McCann claiming bronze in the B. Callum McLaughlin won the B long jump as well as scoring valuable points in the shot. Finally the relay squad of Ben, Callum, Sam and Jack passed the baton slickly to secure an unexpected silver.

The U17 boys was our weakest section overall with only a few athletes available and finishing in 5th place in their category. Dominic Martin was our AOTM after a PB in the 400m and an unexpected bronze in the A 800m. Harry Howard went well in both sprints while Cameron Powell took bronze in both B sprints as well as 4th in the high jump.

So a superb all-round display by the squad, who have improved by a big margin from last year and can now compete with the best teams in this league. Well done to all the Team Managers, coaches and parents for the support on the day and indeed throughout the season.