Rising Stars Newsletter 24-25

Introducing the 2024/2025 Squad:

Firstly, A huge Congratulations to all those who have been selected for this year’s Rising Star Squad. Everyone selected attended the testing evenings which took place across the 16^th and 23^rd of September and produced some very impressive performances!

Squad list:

Special mention must also go to Coaches Laura, Erin, Abby and Caitlin who give of their time to help develop the athletes with a plethora of fun and engaging sessions each week.

Squad Success Stories

NI & Ulster Age Group XC Championships Highlights:

There were several impressive performances across the NI & Ulster Even and Uneven age group Championships.

• Sophie Wylie competed in the even U14 age group at the Billy Neill Playing Fields on Sunday 20^th She came 18th overall in the U14 Girls race which was enough to help her Lagan Valley team become gold medal winners!(pictured above in the intro).

• Sophie Rankin also competed in the U14 Girls 2500m race and finished in 28^th place and came 6^th at the Uneven Championships in Donegal, earning her a place on the Ulster team for the upcoming All Irelands (pictured above).
• Leila Jones competed in both the Even and Uneven Championships finishing a brilliant 3^rd and 4^th respectively in both.

National and Local Event Highlights:

• Ethan Lee competed in the All-Ireland Schools Combined Events and came 9th place. He set a personal best for long jump of 5m 53cm. In the shot put he threw 9m 56 and ran an impressive 9.91s for the 60m hurdles which resulted in him achieving total score was 2408 (Pictured in the intro).

• Emma Craig has been competing across the country this season in the Comber Cup, Bobby Rea and most notably a strong 5^th place at the McConnell Shield in Ballyclare.

• Jack Crawford also competed at the recent McConnell Shield and was very happy to come 2^nd in the U14 Boys race!

• Lauren Tate has been in fine form over the summer competing in the multi-events. Notably she picked up the win in the Javelin at one of the Lagan Valley Fab 5 meetings with a throw of 15.03m and she completed her first NI & Ulster U13 pentathlon finishing in 9^th place topping it off with a pb of 3.52m in the long jump.

Achievements Beyond the Track and Country:

• Sophie Rankin has been busy this month as she also completed the Irish Triathlon Series, and it was announced that she finished 3rd in Ireland.
• Sophie is also a keen swimmer and competed in her first gala 2 weeks ago in South lakes she received a bronze medal for 200m Back stroke and took 6 seconds of her previous PB.
• Robyn Garland, who has also qualified for the All-Ireland Championships in the U13 Girls race and has been selected as part of her County Schools team in Gaelic.
• Ashton Stewart had a great performance at the Irish Championships for BMX coming 2^nd and to top it all off, he has qualified for the World championships in Copenhagen next year!

A very well done and Congratulations to all the talented athletes in their recent success in competition and for their continued enthusiasm and commitment every Monday night during the training sessions!

Stay tuned for future updates in the next issue of the Rising Stars Newsletter!