[Not a valid template]Its off to Birmingham again for the boys and so near but so far for the very classy girls team. The boys were superbly organised and were well clear of Regent House, Mid Ulster and Strabane. The girls were 2nd to Lagan Valley. Taking the two teams together, as is the case in Birmingham would leave North Down easy winners overall. Consolation for the girls was the award of the Jimmy Murray Trophy to Amy Foster for a league 100m record of 12.33 secs and U15 Athlete of the Match for Hannah Lewis with another league record of 5.31m in long jump.
Matthew Heaney left with 5 gold medals with wins in 400m, 80m hurdles, javelin, 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m. John Carlisle, Kim Shaw and Mark Patterson also had the heavy 5 event workload. But really it’s invidious naming individual athletes as this was basically a team performance in both leagues. Anyone not ill, injured or on holiday was there. Anyone there performed. All the athletes have come through the club system and the results can speak for themselves. Mention has to be made though of Linda Patterson and Rosemary Colwell who got the teams together.
The girls team has a lot with which to look forward. Amy Foster and Nicola Simpson say goodbye to the Young Athletes League but the bulk of the team will still be there next year and the U13 boys and girls team both did well. There has been an above average intake of Primary School age and many of them competed in the final. As for the boys team, its back to Birmingham on 3rd Sept. Be there.