MEDAL HAUL FOR NI ATHLETES IN COMMONWEALTH YOUTH GAMES - 16 October 2008

Ciara Mageean ran in the 800m heat this morning finishing second ina time of 2.12.71 and qualifying for the final later today (1:15pm local time).

NI athletes captured a silver and two bronze medals at the Commonwealth youth Games in Pune India in one of the most successful days ever for the Provinces young athletes.

North Down’s Hannah Lewis took silver in the long jump while City of Lisburn’s Ciara Mageean got bronze in the Women’s 1500m. Chesterfield’s Edward Mourbey also took an unexpected bronze in the pole vault while Lagan Valley’s Curtis woods missed out on a bronze in the 400m by the narrowest of margins. The small team of 6 athletes also further underpinned their in-form reputation with a series of personal best performances.

In the long jump final pre-event favourite Lewis perhaps inevitably suffered a reaction from her PB qualifying jump of 5.98m- some 15cms further than any other competitor. It took her until the Round 4 to record what proved to be a silver medal jump of 5.85m. However England’s Abigail Irozuru immediately responded with a winning leap of 5.92m which the North Down girl could not match. Nevertheless a silver medal and a PB by some 13cms were outstanding achievements way beyond Hannah’s pre Games expectations. A busy Lewis has also qualified for the semi-final of the 200m.

Assumption Convent schoolgirl Mageean confirmed earlier medal expectations by grabbing a bronze medal over the 1500m event in a time of 4.22.53, with the Kenyan winner clocking 4.20.16. Chesterfield’s Ed Mourbey was a surprised bronze medallist in the pole vault with a PB of 4.70m achieved on his first attempt. A delighted Mourbey said he was very pleased to gain a medal.

Unluckiest person in the NI contingent was Lagan Valley’s Curtis Woods who missed out on a bronze medal to England’s Jordan McGrath by an agonizing one hundredth of a second. He did however have the consolation of yet another eye catching time of 47.27seconds. This represents a staggering 0.78 seconds improvement on his previous best and places him top of the UK U17 rankings and also is an Irish Youth Record. 16 year old Woods now poses a serious threat to his Irish senior contemporaries. The race was won by Grenada’s James Kinani in a record time of 46.66 seconds.

In the Men’s high hurdles North Down’s Ben Reynolds made up for an indifferent high jump performance to battle his way to 5th place in the final following a PB run of 14.40 seconds in his heat. Abbey’s Gaby McNally finished 7th in the hammer throw of 48.56m- only 2.4 metres short of the silver medal. This was achieved despite 4 of her 6 throws being declared invalid.

-ENDS-