We had a great turnout from our young athletes at the NI and Ulster Children’s Games and U12/ U13 Championships in Donegal last weekend. For some of them it was their first time competing at Ulster level and they performed brilliantly. In the U9’s we had Noah Clarke, Aoife Byrne and Lily Rose Ward. In u10’s we had Odhrán Byrne and Éadaoin Mc Guirk. In U11’s we had Sarah Reilly, Arthur Jackson and Cadhla Liggan. In U12’s we had Eimear McGuirk, Dylan O’Reilly and Ronan Rodger’s. Dylan and Ronan both qualified from their heats in the 60m and Dylan went on to win gold in the 60m sprint and Ronan finishing 7th.
The U13 athletes who competed on the day were Sarah Kate Liggan, Aine Harney, Eimear Byrne, Leila Cooney, Síofra Clarke and Ryan Ward. Sarah Kate Liggan qualified for the final of the 60m hurdles with the 4th fastest time. In the final, Sarah Kate stormed out of the blocks and was rewarded for her determined run with the silver medal. Leila Cooney also participated in the 60m hurdles finishing 2nd in her heat and was unlucky not to make the final, finishing in 9th position overall. Sarah Kate, Leila and Aine Harney were in action later on in the 80m. This was a very competitive event with 7 heats. Unfortunately, despite strong runs, the girls didn’t make the cut for the top 8 final. The girls along with Eimear Byrne also participated in the long jump. Eimear Byrne competed in the 600m and finished 6th in her heat. Síofra Clarke competed in the shot put and javelin and did very well to finish 7th in the javelin. Ryan Ward had 2 strong performances when he finished 5th in the 80m final and 6th in his long jump.
The U13 girls relay (Aine, Sarah Kate, Leila and Eimear) had a super race in the 4x100m to finish in 5th place. A great day was had by all the athletes in very warm conditions.
