Medals galore at Age-group champs!
Tue 21 June 2011--admin
Well, where do you start? 10 titles (plus a guest win from Erin in the 250 hurdles)! 36 medals in total over the two days! A further 9 more All-Ireland qualification places for 4th place finishes! And perhaps the most pleasing aspect of all was that the medals were well spread across jumps, throws and track including hurdles!
Anyone who was standing anywhere near the medal podium at the Antrim Forum over the weekend will certainly be very familiar with the sight of the new City of Lisburn club vests by now! It seemed to be every 5 minutes that another Lisburn athlete was called up to receive their medal after a string of excellent performances across the events and age groups.
U14 Girls
Jessica McMaster was one of our stars, winning the long jump gold for which she was favourite but also taking a surprise win in the high jump. Madison Bowyer can always be relied upon for a medal and she produced a good run for silver in the 1500m. Annie Alexander just missed out on a shot medal at the Odyssey in the Indoor champs but made sure here with a great 7m throw for bronze. Sarah Woods left it to round 5 to secure 3rd place in the javelin, while Jodie Savage took bronze in the hammer where only 50cms covered the first three.
U14 Boys
Ben Fisher was perhaps the star performer in this age group, taking three individual medals. His long jump gold, sprint silver and hurdles bronze exactly matched his haul from the indoor champs and the highlight was probably his first 5 metre long jump. Cameron Kelly was a double medallist, jumping a PB at the high jump of 1.50m plus throwing over 9m in the shot for silver. Jack McComb secured a title of his own, winning the sprint hurdles in a great race ahead of Ben.
U15 girls
This category also featured a number of Lisburn multiple-medallists. Roseanna McGuckian led the way with a classy sprint double plus taking long jump silver. Jane Anderson took home two medals namely high jump silver and hurdles bronze. Natalja Ritchie had a great day too with shot silver and hammer bronze, with Aoife Doherty taking bronze in the shot in her first ever shot competition! Megan Marrs completed the medal haul for the U15 girls with high jump bronze.
U15 boys
Despite many good performances across the events Lisburn had just a couple of medallists in this category – Josh Jordan who threw a super 36 metres for hammer silver in his debut competition in this event and Callum McLaughlin who added long jump silver here to his Ulster Schools silver.
U16 girls
Anna McIlmoyle lived up to her “cover girl” star billing when she featured on the front page of the Championships programme by clinching high jump gold with a 1.60m SB and also taking hurdles silver. Rebecca Harvey was our other track medallist in this category with a fine silver in the 1500m. In the field Irish Schools triple jump medallist Kathryn Case showed her versatility by taking bronze in both shot and hammer. One of the most popular wins of the day in the Lisburn camp was Aoibhin McManus’s long jump gold in an excellent PB of 5.25m. Erin Quinn unfortunately didn’t get to compete in the sprints due to an entry mix-up but was awarded a guest place in the 250m hurdles which she proceeded to win in style!
U16 boys
Andrew Hutchinson was predictably one of the stars of this age group, joining Ben and Roseanna as triple-medallists from these champs. Andrew won high jump gold, hurdles silver over the 100m distance and long jump bronze in a 5.66m PB – a great day’s work in a great season for Andrew. Stuart McEwan has been quite a find in the sprints this year, taking bronze in both finals and running an excellent 23.83s PB in the 200m semi.
Congratulations to all the athletes themselves, particularly the medallists. Space does not allow mentions for the large number of other athletes who secured All-Ireland places or who achieved PBs – but there were many! Finally a big thank you to our excellent coaching team for getting our athletes to the championships in good shape and able to challenge for so many medals. 36 medals this year compared to 13 on the same weekend in 2010 shows the progress made by the club in a short space of time.