Medal Success at England U15 and U17 Championships

The International is a regular fixture for the U15 and U17 age group and is part of the strategy aimed at strengthening the Athlete Development Pathway and increasing the numbers of athletes successfully transitioning from U17 to U20, U23 and senior age groups. Along with Age Group domestic Championships, the England Athletics Age Group Championships is an opportunity for athletes to learn performance behaviours including interacting effectively with team coaches, self-management and preparation at championship events.

Ulster Schools’ record-breaking Hammer Thrower Adrienne Gallen (Lifford Strabane / John O’Donnell) was the first athlete to medal finishing 2^nd in the U15 Hammer with 48.19m, Adrienne also threw a Discus PB of 33.31m to finish 4^th the following day. Following this medals were won by Bethany Nixon (Dromore AC) who took bronze in the U17 Women’s 3000m in a time of 10:30.66 and Oliver Swinney (Mike Fountain) in the 100m. Oliver, who has just graduated from Rising Stars Coleraine has made huge improvements in 2019 and had recently set PBs at the Belfast and Manchester Internationals, faced 3 round of the 100m for the first time in his young career. After winning his heat in 10.91 (-0.2) and Semi Final in 10.82 (0.9) Oliver, who still has one year left in this age group, went on to take 3^rd place in one of the fastest ever 100m age group finals with 10.81 (1.4) behind Joel Pascal-Menzie who won in 10.46.                                                                                                                                                  

Kick starting day 2, Ava Ross (Glaslough Harriers), produced an excellent personal best in the 5000m Walk where she took the gold medal in 27:56 and was well ahead of the rest of the field. The final medal winner was Jenna Breen (City of Lisburn / Jo Savage), another athlete a year young in her age group, who outperformed her ranking to take the silver medal in the U17 Women’s 300m in 40.07.

Top 8’s were also achieved by Katie Monteith, Victoria Lightbody (City of Lisburn) and Jude McCrossan (Lifford Strabane) in a weekend where all NI & Ulster athletes performed well, exhibited desirable performance behaviours and took many learning points away that will benefit them in the rest of their careers.