Athletics
Boys’ Athletics
The flood damage to the all-weather surface at Roughfort had mixed effects on this year’s athletics. Our more experienced athletes got the benefit of training on the excellent tartan track at the Antrim Forum, but our development group followed a more restricted programme at Roughfort. Despite this we had reasonable team success, and our stronger individuals maintained our traditional high standards.
William Martin was District champion in both Long and Triple Jump, was 3rd in the Ulster Championships and qualified to compete in the Irish Champion-ships, where he finished in 7th place. Three Intermediates, Nathan Reid in Long Jump, Chris Reynolds in Discus and Conor Leckey in Discus, all qualified for the Irish Championships. Nathan was 3rd in the Irish, Chris 4th and Conor 6th. Chris and Conor produced personal best performances, both comfortably crossing the 40 metre barrier. Nathan is Ulster Long Jump Champion, and is our new record holder, with a 6m 60cm jump. In the Irish Championships Nathan finished in 3rd place, just 9 cms behind the winner. He did have another 6.60 metre jump but he was marginally over the line.
Damien McIlroy won the Ulster 80m Hurdles and was 2nd in the Long Jump. In the Irish Championships he finished 4th in the Hurdles, just missing the bronze medal by 0.002 secs, and came 5th in the Long Jump.
Robbie Creighton, Christopher Reynolds, Nathan Reid and Conor Leckey all competed for Ulster in the Schools’ Inter Pro where Nathan won the Long Jump. He was selected for the Schools’ International against the 3 home countries and for Ulster in the Celtic international and was taken by the NIAF to the UK championships in Birmingham.
Reid, Leckey, Reynolds and Creighton all represented N. Ireland in the UK School Games, a competition which replicates a major world competition in order to develop athletes in the standards and rigours of top level competition. N. Ireland, Wales, Scotland and 9 English regional teams took part. This was the most testing schools’ competition ever staged in the UK.
All of our boys competed outstandingly well: Nathan Reid was placed 5th with 6.51 metres, only 9 cms below his best. He was pushed down to 5th from 4th by only 3 cms in the last round of the competition.
Chris Reynolds had a superb competition, finishing in 6th place with a new personal best of 43.61 metres. Conor Leckey also had a great competition, throwing a new personal best of 43.09 metres, and finishing in 9th place.
Northern Ireland, led by Mr Moffett, received praise from the organising committee for being the friendliest team. It was a personal delight for him to co-ordinate all of the activities and to be the senior team manager.
Girls’ Athletics
The Girls’ Athletics season got underway over the February half term, with the Northern Ireland Indoor Championships at the Odyssey. All the hurdlers achieved successes in their individual events but Colleen McMahon’s was certainly the most memorable. She lined up beside the World Outdoor Silver medallist, from Jamaica, and the British No. 1 hurdler, Sarah Claxton. We were delighted that she was level with these world class athletes to the first hurdle!
Due to the late Easter, athletics had little time to prepare for the major championships. The enthusiasm of the 1st year girls was most refreshing. They were keen to try out every event, were fiercely competitive and loved to win. 25 girls qualified for the Ulster Championships – not quite up to last year’s standard, although quite a number of athletes qualified in two events. Winning the Junior Challenge Cup and Senior Challenge Cup for scoring the highest number of points in these sections was superb. However, collecting the Ulster Schools’ Challenge Cup, for the fourth successive year, was rather special.
The highlights in the Ulster Championships were, in the Junior section, Sasha Hooks winning the 800m, the sparkling victory for the Relay Squad, Orla Drysdale winning the discus in the Intermediate section and wins for Colleen McMahon in the 100m Hurdles and for Sarah Neary in the 1500m in the Senior section. Overall twelve girls qualified for the Irish Championships.
The athletes made the long journey to Tullamore for the Irish Championships on 3 June; we had high hopes and we were not disappointed. There was particular success in the Junior section, where Christine Martin won the Triple Jump, Sasha Hooks was second in the 800m and our Relay Squad won their race in an excellent time: the Junior Girls won the overall team trophy. The best results in the Senior section were from Sarah Neary who was third in the 3000m and from Colleen McMahon who was second in the 100m Hurdles. All athletes produced “personal bests” on a hot sunny weekend.
The girls continued to compete after the examinations and during the summer holidays.
Entries for the Northern Ireland Club Age Group Championships were high, especially from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Form girls. Three girls were Northern Ireland Champions in their age groups: Charlene McAdams in the U12 Discus, Christine McMahon in the Junior 800m and Christine Martin in the Junior Triple Jump.
Orla Drysdale and Sasha Hooks were selected for the Ulster Team in the Interprovincials. Both girls were then selected for the Northern Ireland Team. All in all, it was another outstanding year for Girls’ Athletics. Miss Stewart was delighted with the success and believes that the involvement encourages them to aspire to excellence. Certainly most of our Athletes achieved highly in the examinations.
School News
BOYS’ ATHLETICS RESULTS
13th May 2008
District Championships, Antrim Forum
GIRLS’ ATHLETICS RESULTS
12th May 2008
District Championships, Antrim Forum
CHESS RESULTS
12th May 2008
UK Chess Challenge Megafinal of Northern Ireland
SHOWJUMPING RESULTS
12th May 2008
Ulster Schools’ Showjumping Spring Championships