Junior Squad win 2012 NIYAL Final
Sun 8 July 2012--admin
City of Lisburn AC are 2012 NIYAL champions after winning the Regional final at the Antrim Forum on Saturday and as a result have qualified to represent N. Ireland at the UK finals on 01 September in Manchester. Our team of talented 11-16 year old athletes won their first overall title thanks to some amazing performances throughout the day.
Highlights included Natalja Ritchie breaking the NIYAL record in the U15 hammer with an excellent 31.31m and our athletes taking a clean sweep of “Athlete of the Match” awards across the six age-groups. These included:-
U13 Boys – Josh Armstrong for his 14.05s hurdles win.
U13 Girls – Anna McAuley for her 10.71s 75m win.
U15 Boys – Matthew Dalton for a 1.78m high jump performance which was within 2cms of the league record.
U15 Girls – Megan Marrs for an 11.81s 75m hurdles win.
U17 Girls – Roseanna McGuckian winning on a very impressive 40.99s 300m debut to go top of another event in the local rankings.
U17 Boys – Aaron Dalzell’s flying 22.87s 200m win.
The athletes were buzzing ahead of the competition with many sporting club colours in the form of face-paint, nails and even hair being dyed red (or pink in some cases!). The weather forecast had been grim but things improved after a very wet start to see brighter and warm conditions in the afternoon. The athletes did themselves and their supporters proud with many winning two, three and even four golds in some cases.
Summary by age-groups as follows:-
Under 13 boys
Louis McGuckian maintained his undefeated record in this year’s competition with a fine sprint double plus a long jump win. Bradley Mulholland also won three individual golds at high jump, 200 and 800. Josh was another to finish with three wins from his 100m, hurdles and high jump.
Christopher Larmour won the B hurdles and long jump and was 2nd in the A 1500m while Ben Ritchie did well to win the B 1500m and take silver in the A shot. Sean Terek made a good contribution with silvers at 800m and B shot before the relay team of Josh, Bradley, Christopher and Louis completed a great day for this team with a win in 56.75s.
Under 13 Girls
Anna McAuley stood out on the track with her sprint win and she also added 800m gold. Emma Conlon was a triple gold-medallist with wins in the B sprints and long jump. Clodagh McManus had a successful first appearance for the YAL team, winning the A long jump with a very good 4.24m effort plus earning a pair of silvers at 150m and hurdles.
Kayla Hall has been a key member of this team this year and she won her B 800 and was 2nd in the hurdles. Tyla Eley was 2nd in the A 1200 before adding B shot gold and Caitlin Fisher made a great contribution with B high jump silver and 1200m gold. In the field events Katie O’Reilly jumped a good 1.30m for high jump gold in the rain early on while later winning a shot bronze.
The relay team of Anna, Emma, Clodagh and Kayla completed their great work with relay gold in 59.68s.
U15 Boys
Matthew Dalton stood out here with wins in the A high jump, shot and javelin to lead the way for a great afternoon for this team. Ben Fisher also won three golds including a PB in the B high jump of 1.50m plus taking full points in the B long jump and B hurdles. Cameron Kelly flew to a great 12.42s win in the 80m hurdles and also won the B shot plus hammer bronze.
The sheer speed of Peter Tipping stood out in the sprints with a 12.41s/24.90s double win. Ryan Hall was also in great form on the track, winning his B 100 in 12.60s plus a very impressive 40.19s 300m win. Ciaran Barnes made it a clean sweep of golds for Lisburn in the sprints with B 25.68s / 42.03s wins at 200m and 300m.
At middle distance Jordan Hutchings was close to his PB when winning the 1500m in 4:34 while Timotej Baca was second in the A 800 in 2:26 with Ciaran winning B gold in 2:45.13. Matthew Robinson helped out with B discus gold plus a javelin silver and Ross Magee was 3rd in the A discus and 2nd in the B hammer.
The 4×100 team of Ben, Peter, Cameron and Robbie Marrs (51.26s) and 4x300m squad of Ciaran, Matthew, Ryan and Jordan (2:51.13) both won comfortably.
Under 15 Girls
Natalja Ritchie was one of several triple gold medallists after winning all three of her heavy throw events including her hammer record. Megan Marrs was unable to jump due to an injury but was still able to perform at near her best on the track with excellent wins in the 100m in 12.56s and 75m hurdles in 11.81s.
Sarah Woods was in superb form and recorded PBs while winning each of her three events – 26.40m in the javelin, 4.55m in long jump and an excellent 12.58s in the 75m hurdles which is a big step forward following some dramatic technical advancement in this event recently. Her training partner Alix Galbraith showed her versatility and value to the squad with three golds of her own in B high jump with 1.45m, A shot with 7.97m and a win in the B hammer on her debut with this implement.
Katie Larmour also won both her sprints, in times of 13.17s and 27.11s for the 100m/200m which are both PBs and she was 2nd in the A long jump in 4.63m which was close to her best. Sophie Higginson and Maeve Hoyt took full points for Lisburn in the 800m, notable for Maeve bouncing quickly back to her feet after being accidentally tripped with 300m to go. At 1500m Zoe Carruthers took silver in the A race with 5:11 while there was B gold for Madison Bowyer with 5:26.
Rounding up the field events, Phoebe Tan won the A high jump in 1.50m, Lara Creighton won the B javelin with 21.97m and Robyn Kelly also won gold in the B discus with 16.19m. Fiona Nicholson ran a PB of 29.96s for 4th in the B 200m.
Finally, the 4x100m team of Katie, Phoebe, Natalja and Megan ran well but despite a storming last leg from Megan couldn’t quite catch Lagan Valley and had to settle for silver.
U17 Boys
Aaron Dalzell was pure class in the sprints, winning the A races in 11.49s / 22.87s and later winning the B triple jump in 12.05m. It was good to see Stuart McEwan back from injury problems to win the B 100m in 11.77s while Callum Archer ran very well to win silver in the B 200m in a 24.76s PB. Dominic Martin has been superb over 400m and 800m this year and took “A” silver in both in 55.71s / 2:12.38. Nelson Amaral had a PB of 57.28s while winning his B 400m while Thomas O’Callaghan was 2nd in his B 800m.
Jonathan Whan had a good day, knocking 10 seconds off his 1500m PB with a 4:28.84 silver medal winning run, after a 3000m silver earlier in the day. Sam Wallace deserves a special mention for his contribution. He scored well while winning 100m hurdles B gold and 400m A silver, but went beyond the call of duty to also complete the steeplechase to huge cheers from his team mates as he showed good technique over the barriers and safely negotiated the water jump on each lap.
Boys’ Captain Andrew Hutchinson had by far his best 100m Hurdles race of the season, running a 14.32s PB to win gold. He also won the A high jump in 1.70m plus the B long jump with 5.76m for great day’s work. Fiontann Curran took full points in the B high jump with 1.55m.
Jonathan Hill’s great season continued with wins in the A long jump and triple jumps in 5.80m (PB) / 12.24m and also placed 2nd in the discus. Cameron Powell won both his B javelin and B 400m hurdles while Cameron Magee won his B shot and placed 3rd in the A hammer with a 21.44m PB. Ronan Jenkinson won his speciality javelin with 42.02m and was 2nd in the A shot.
In the 4x100m relay Callum, Aaron, Cameron and Stuart were clear winners in 45.90s. The 4x400m squad of Dominic, Andrew, Nelson and Jonathan combined well but just lost out in a thrilling finish to City of Derry.
U17 Girls:-
Roseanna McGuckian’s 40.99s 300m win was the outstanding performance here and she added shot gold with 7.20m for good measure. However, Jane Anderson was also a class act as she won her 80 hurdles in a 12.06s PB before taking 2nd in the 300m hurdles in 49.64s. Jessica Robinson recorded PBs while earning bronzes in both sprints in 13.39s / 27.48s. Kathryn Case was 2nd in the B 100m but won her B triple jump and long jump competitions.
Lizzie Lawther was 2nd in her B 300m but won her B 200 in 29.67s and B long jump in 4.19m. Charlotte McConville ran well for 2nd in the B 1500m and 3rd in the A 800m.
Rebecca Harvey was 3rd in her 1500 A race in 5:23 before also chipping in with a B javelin silver. Caitlin Rose was 1st in her B hurdles and B high jump (1.45m) and also 2nd in the sprint hurdles. Jenna Daley enjoyed her first competitive outing for the club, throwing well for A discus gold in 16.09m plus javin silver in 17.95m as well as a brave run for 800m B silver. Ruth Hewlett did the business in the A hammer with victory with 21.47m while Caroline Woods was 2nd in the B but 1st in the B discus.
Girls’ captain Aoibhin McManus did well to win the A triple jump in 9.74m and also the B shot and was 2nd in the long jump with 5.26m.
The 4x100m squad of Kathryn, Jessica, Jane and Roseanna had a good win with 52.51s although the 4x300m squad of Rebecca, Charlotte, Caitlin and Aoibhin had to settle for bronze in 3:05.62s.
At the conclusion of events Aoibhin and Andrew accepted the handsome cut-glass trophy from Athletics NI President Gerry Lynch to great cheers from the City of Lisburn supporters.
A huge thank you on behalf of City of Lisburn AC to the committee of the NIYAL for a well-organised competition and also to all the officials for their hard work again this season.