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Talent Shines at UK School Games
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Sinead Chambers of Northern Ireland
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The second UK School Games which took place in Coventry from the 23 – 26 August were a huge success for competitors from Northern Ireland and Ireland as they picked up a host of medals.
The Games, an exciting initiative designed to encourage more young people to take part in sport and provide them with the experience of being involved in a major multi-sport competitive event, saw 1300 competitors in eight sports battling for honours at five venues across the West Midland’s city, over three days of competition. National Lottery funding of £2.3 million has been awarded to the Youth Sport Trust through the Big Lottery Fund, to developthe UK School Games until 2011 and for the 2007 Games in Coventry. Visa was the presenting sponsor of the 2007 Games which were also supported by Coventry City Council.
Northern Ireland provided a mixed team of boys and girls to compete in each of the eight sports; badminton, judo, volleyball, athletics, swimming, gymnastics, table tennis, and fencing. Overall there were great performances from many individuals and the teams…
The swimming team entered was an All Ireland team with competitors from both North and South. Ireland won four Gold Individual medals and one Gold Team medal in the Men’s Open 400m Medley Team. They also won four individual silver medals and one team silver and two individual bronze medals.
Outstanding performances were had by both Conor Leaney and Michael Dawson; Conor won two individual Gold medals in the Men’s Open 50m Freestyle (24.3 seconds) and the Men’s Open 100m Freestyle (53.9 seconds). Michael won an individual Gold in the Men’s Open 100m Breaststroke with the impressive time of 1min 7seconds.
Conor Leaney in action
The Northern Ireland Athletic Squad didn’t disappoint either with great results. Jenny Brown and Ciara Mageean picked up gold for Northern Ireland; Jenny dominated the girl’s shot put winning with 12m22 while Ciara Mageean produced a powerful display of endurance running winning the 3000m in 9min 51seconds. Hannah Lewis won a silver medal in the Long Jump with 5m78, and was only beaten to gold by 2cm. Jason Harvey won a silver medal in the High Jump clearing 1m99 and Gabraelle McNally won a bronze in the Women’s Hammer setting a new personal best of 46.51m.
In badminton Tony Stephenson won Gold in the Men’s Singles and Sinead Chambers made it to the Semi final in the Women’s singles losing to the eventual winner.
Northern Ireland's Sarah-Louise Lowe returns the ball in the game with Scotland (North&West)
Judo won five Bronze medals in total with superb performances from Kevin McCloskey (-55kg), Conor Bradley (-66kg), Caoimhin Thompson (-73kg), Jonathan McGowan (-81kg), and Lucinda Bell (-48kg).
Luke Carson brought home two bronze medals for gymnastics in the Men’s Apparatus competition on the vault and floor.
Northern Ireland's Luke Carson in the rings
The Northern Ireland Fencing Team also contributed to the medal tally with the women’s team winning the bronze medal in the Epee and the men’s team winning the Bronze in the Sabre.
Chairman of Sport Northern Ireland, Professor Eric Saunders OBE, highlights the importance of such a performance for Northern Ireland:
“Results this weekend have demonstrated the future generation of sporting stars developing in Northern Ireland and Ireland and their great capabilities. A competition of this style is a benchmark for aspiring athletes to work towards, as well as providing a great experience for them to build upon for their sporting careers. Sport Northern Ireland is committed to raising the standards of sporting excellence through investment in the governing bodies of sport to ensure the development of young athletes, and I am delighted to hear of the brilliant results at the weekend”.
Jamie Nevin in action for Northern Ireland in mens hammer
In addition to Northern Ireland and Ireland being represented by athletes, it was also represented by volunteers at the games. Volunteering is one of the key themes of the UK School Games, to create high quality opportunities for both young people and adults to volunteer at what is a high profile international event and also leave a lasting legacy of trained and experienced volunteers within the host city and beyond. Three young teenagers from Northern Ireland volunteered at the UK School Games; Peter Canavan, St Columb’s College Londonderry, Sheena Mann, Belfast Model School for Girls, Roisin Rafferty, Loreto Grammar School Omagh and Leanne Forker from UUJ volunteered at the games in the capacity as a mentor. It was an invaluable opportunity for all involved and it is envisaged that the representation in Coventry can be built upon at next years UK School Games to be held in Bath and Bristol in August 2008.
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