NIYAL Round 3 – Bangor 09 June

Mon 14 June 2010--admin

The young athletes of City of Lisburn AC did their coaches and parents proud at Bangor on Wednesday night, qualifying safely for the Young Athletes League final on 31 July. This was maybe the club’s best collective perfomance of the 3 rounds with a host of victories and PB’s on track and field on a cold and blustery but dry evening.

The U13 girls were magnificent overall. Lauren Rea’s excellent season continued with victory in the A shot with a great 6.80m – a PB by over 50cms! She was well backed up by Lisburn newcomer Annie Alexander who achieved a fine 2nd place in the B string on her club debut. Over the 75m hurdles Tereze Hilman was 2nd in the A race with Jodie Savage 3rd in the B. In the 150m sprint, Katie Larmour was 2nd in the A with Natalja Ritchie nearly a second clear in winning the B string. Zoe Crothers and Madison Bowyer made it a Lisburn double in the 800m while a great evening’s work was rounded off with a narrow victory in the 4x100m.

The very strong Lisburn U15 girls were dominant throughout the evening. Erin Quinn and Aoibhan McManus had another great battle over 200m with Erin pipping her rival and team-mate this time for a Lisburn double win. Aoibhan’s 5.09m PB for victory in the Long Jump was one of the best female field performances of the whole evening while Kathryn Case with 4.36m took full points for CoL in the B event. Irish Schools hurdlers Anna McIlmoyle and Jane Atkinson both looked classy on their way to straightforward victories in the A and B 75mH. Caitlin Rose threw well in the A discus for 3rd and was also 2nd in the B Shot. Erin was 3rd in the A shot with 6.17m.

But the highlight was undoubtedly the sprint relay team of Aoibhan, Jane, Jessica and Erin. A winning margin of 40m over the other girls’ teams was not enough for the Lisburn flyers, who also beat all but one of the U15 Boy’s teams in what was a mixed race!

The U17 girls had some great victories in the throws. Francesca Brown won the javelin in style with 24.76m and Irish Schools medallist Caris Greenwood won a tight discus event on her debut in the silver vest. They were backed up in both events with valuable points from Kathryn Wallace in the B strings. Schools champion Libby Rose won the A sprint hurdles in a superb 12.0s and later ran a great anchor leg in the relay. Her long jump of 4.84m was enough for a comfortable victory in the A while Helen Begley took the honours in the B with 4.55m. Francesca along with Courtney Sloan took full points in the 800m while Helen Begley took 3rd in the A 200m. Finally the relay team got the baton round safely for 3rd!

Unfortunately CoL was not represented in the U13 boys but there were a number of excellent performances from the boys in the other two age-groups.

Outstanding in the U15 boys was Lisburn debutant Curtis Kinney, who won a strong javelin competition in 39.24m for probably the best performance of the evening in his age-group overall. The other A string victory came from Dominic Strong with 60.9s in the A 400m. Sam Wallace took 3rd in the A 100m and 4th in the discus while Caelan Tyler scored points in the B discus and javelin. Ross Curry was 3rd in the A 800m and the boys combined for 4th in the relay behind a certain girls team – see above!

In the U17 boys, Adam Hill dipped below 16 seconds again to win the A 100m hurdles in 15.8s and was backed up well by Harry Howard who won the B. Adam later took 2nd in the A High Jump with 1.60m with Harry 2nd in the B 400m. Josh Garnham moved up to 400m and won the A event in 57.6s and also won the B high jump.

Thanks to all athletes and supporters for turning out and congratulations on a great evening’s work! See you at Antrim for the final on 31 July.