Throwers Excel in Derry YAL

North Down AC throwers, led by Matthew Martin and Beth Wilson, gave a masterclass, zooming up the Power of 10 national rankings, when the 2nd round of the McCain NI Young Athletes’ League was held in Derry on Saturday. On a beautiful day at a sun-drenched Templemore (and you haven’t read that very often), Matthew broke the league U17 javelin record (700g) with 54.55m and went on to win the later senior event (800g) with 43.78m. Beth, who won U17 shot and discus with pb’s, threw the 2nd longest discus in the league, coming within range of Eva Massey’s U17 league record, with 33.34m. In addition she was belatedly credited with the league U15 record which she broke last year at Mary Peters but went unrecognised.

For good measure Louis Atkinson took the U17 discus and at U15 level, Niall McGrattan won javelin and was narrowly pipped at shot.Once again, outside events conspired to keep numbers down, in fact Beth was the only girl for North Down at U17 and U15. The U13 girls however were better represented after several barren years with this age group and there some pleasing performances.

U15 boys were just about adequate numerically but at the all important U17 youths level things were very different. A very strong North Down squad showed it was not just the throwers on form – on the track the club took every race in their match, A and B, from 100m to 1500m. Step up Matthew Hamilton, Mark Widdowson, Glen Willis, Sam McKibbin, Darragh McDonald and Nico Espana.

Round 3 will be an evening match in Bangor on Wednesday 9th June.