The UK School Games is an annual multi-sport event that takes place in Manchester over the course of three days and sees teams from Northern Ireland, Scotland, NE England, NW England, the Midlands, SE England, SW England & the Rest of the World compete across 12 different sports including athletics.
The Games began with an opening ceremony on Thursday evening, however, it was a tough day at the office for most of the Northern Ireland athletics team on Friday 4th as they competed against the top U17 athletes from around the UK regions.
The six NDAC athletes who were part of NI team were:
Oliver Wakefield (Priory Integrated College), 6th in the long jump with 5.94m (-0.8w)
Holly Brannigan (Wellington College), 7th in the 300m hurdles with 47.47s
Aaron Sexton (Bangor Grammar School), 7th in the 100m with 11.51s (-2.9w)
Olivia Cumming (Glenlola Collegiate), 6th in the 300m with a PB of 41.55s
Michael Gaffney (Campbell College), 7th in the javelin with 49.68m
Aaron Blackmore (Bangor Grammar School), 8th in the 200m with 23.76 (-1.5w)
Aaron S. & Aaron B. were also part of the 4x100m relay team that sadly failed to finish while Olivia & Holly were part of the 4x300m relay team that finished 7th in 2.45.37.
The athletes stay in the ‘athletes village’ for the rest of the weekend and will get to watch other sports before taking part in the closing ceremony on Sunday evening and then returning home late on Sunday night.