Success for North West wrestlers in Glasgow
The entire team of four local wrestlers representing the North West Talent Project took medals at the recent British Junior Wrestling Championships in Glasgow.
The event was held at the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility and the athletes placed as follows: Alexander Henry (Gold and current British Junior Champion) whilst Kurtis Ashcroft, Matthew McCrossan and Ben Pollin all finished as runners up in the silver medal position.
The group was accompanied by Jim Toland an experienced coach from the Waterside Sharks Takedown Club, who stated, “This is a tremendous achievement, I thought that they would do well but the results have really surprised me.”
When asked about the immediate future and the next steps Jim said, “There is no time to relax since some of the guys are competing in the Irish Championships, Dublin. The autumn is always the most congested part of the season but we have trained over the summer for this and the wrestlers ready.”
Sport NI are the driving force behind the North West Talent Project which is a creative and unique programme bringing together experienced coaches from the sports of rugby, climbing, hockey, judo and wrestling to share best practice and pool their ideas with regard to talent identification and development in the North West.
As part of the process local wrestling coaches are hoping to build a strong regional squad which combines the best athletes from the Waterside Sharks, Causeway Giants and young people from the schools programme with a view to exposing them to higher levels of competition on the mainland and sign posting them to the Northern Ireland Talent Squad.
This is the second year that Sport NI working in co-operation with the Sports Development Department from Derry City Council has invested in freestyle wrestling and as Michael Cooke, the Coach Education and Club Development Consultant explains, “We have been working with wrestling as part of the NW talent project for two years now, helping them develop their regional talent systems.
“Our aim is to support the coaches and athletes in the North West to develop and improve. The guys’ performance at the British Junior championships was reflective of the hard work and commitment they have demonstrated throughout the programme.”
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Weather for Derry
Saturday 25 May 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
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