Indeed, the first weekend started brilliantly with all five of Derry’s judo players - Joshua Green, Ryan Sheerin, Corey Lewis, Victoria Colhoun and Chelsea Brown - winning gold medals and this was quickly followed with a gold medal for Ryan Doherty in the Gymnastic Boys under-16 competition.

On the Sunday of the first weekend the young boys representing Creggan took to the pitch for the final of the under-12 boys’ soccer competition and what a final it proved to be.

For the first 20 minutes the Creggan team totally out played their counterparts from Newbridge, Co. Kildare and were duly rewarded when Jordan Hale, the smallest player on the pitch, netted a well taken goal for the Derry team. In the second half the Kildare team started to get back into the game and they exerted sustained pressure on the Derry defence before equalising with five minutes remaining.

When extra-time failed to identify a winner, the dreaded penalty shoot-out was called upon and, unfortunately the Creggan team lost out on spotkicks. However, the team can be extremely proud of their performances over the weekend and, indeed, all the children in attendance at the National Finals were a credit to County Derry.

The second weekend proved to be the most successful ever in the track and field competition when the first ever field medal was secured by Conall Doherty who secured a bronze medal in the boys under-16 discus, an excellent achievement considering that Conall took up this discipline last year.

Amy McDaid ran a superb race in the girl’s under-16 1,500 metres to finish in 7th place in the final and in the boys marathon event the team of David Lynch, Ruairi Heaney, Conal Lundy and Matthew Gallagher put in great performances to claim the bronze team medal.

Final event at Mosney

The final event of the weekend and, in fact, the last track event ever to be staged at Mosney was the boys under-16 relay final and for County Derry it was to prove the icing on the cake after two fantastic weekends of competition.

The Derry team went into the final as pre-race favourites after sailing through the three previous rounds and they did not disappoint. Emmett Gallagher got the local team off to a flying start and a clean baton change saw Christy Beales take the back straight slightly in the lead. Another fluent hand-over saw Emmet McDaid run a superb bend to leave Conor Cummings to bring home the team in gold medal position. The relay team was ably supported throughout the competition by their two substitutes, Sean Irvine and Ruairi Heaney.

All of the young people who have attended Community Games finals in Mosney over the years will have been left with many fond memories and none more so than those enjoyed over the final two weekends of competition this year.