'Young Guns' fire Spartans to Indoors success
ALTHOUGH high jumper, Simon Herron, came close with a fourth place finish, there was no National Senior Indoor medal success at the weekend's championships in Belfast's Odyssey Arena.
However, in the supporting Ulster Juvenile Championships, there was a magnificent medal haul for the young City of Derry Spartan athletes who brought home 10 golds in an impressive total of 23 individual medals, supplemented by four relay squads also getting on the podium.
Heading the local honours list were top ‘young guns’ Ryan McParland and Mark McGarvey, who both claimed triple gold medals in the 60 m., 60 m. hurdles and long jump in their respective under-16 and under-17 age groups. These were marvellous performances recorded so early in the season and augur well for both the upcoming national indoors and subsequent outdoor season.
At girls under-16 level, Claire Dougherty recorded a new personal best of 1 m. 56 cms to take high jump gold; Anna Barr won the under-17 girls 200 metres; Andrew Bolster took the boys under-16 gold over the same distance and Ruairi O'Neill won the boys under-15 high jump.
Ruairi went on to take the boys under-15 relay gold in the company of Calum O'Brien, Jack McCloskey and Shane McGowan and there was also relay silver and double bronze for the boys’ under-13, girls’ under-14 and under-15 squads respectively.
Schools Cross Country
Earlier last week there was a brilliant golden 'double' at the District Schools' Cross Championships in Coleraine as Thornhill's Aoife Laverty and St. Columb's College student, John McLaughlin, stormed to individual victories in their respective Minor age group races.
Both these young talents and the teams from St. Cecilia's, Thornhill and Lumen Christi, will progress to the forthcoming Ulster Finals at Mallusk with provincial honours and a passport to the All-Ireland Finals up for grabs.
Staying with cross country, Stormont will be the venue this Saturday for the N. Ireland-Ulster Senior Male and Female Championships with City of Derry once again flying the local flag. The men's squad hopes to include the Spanish exiled Alan Bogle with his possible inclusion being a definite boost as the local club chase the team gold.
Aileen Morrison and Ann Paul are not yet confirmed to lead the women's squad and their inclusion will be central to a serious challenge being mounted by the female squad. A full preview of the event will appear in this Friday's edition of the ‘Journal.’
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Weather for Derry
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 14 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
