commonwealth youth games

ignatz

hi, some results from the commomewealth youth games, curtis woods qualified for the 400 metre final running 48.05, Ciara Mageean ran 4.25 to qualify for the 1500 metre final and hannah lewis jumped 5.98 to qualify for the long jump final , you can find details here http://www.niathletics.org/opencontent/default.asp

RoyMcC

Great opportunity for the NI youngsters - as it is for a few from Jersey & Guernsey. The latter islands also have the Jeux des Iles and the bi-annual Island Games. These give fantastic competition/travel opportunities for good athletes that are unlikely to aspire to the Olympics.

Do Irish young athletes, or the seniors, have access to overseas track & field team competitions other than the Olympics?

(Other than the Europa Cup thing).

cfitz

European Youth Olympics
European Junior Championships
World Junior Championships
World Student Games
European Senior Championships
World Senior Championships

You'll see a lot of their names on results from various high quality races all around Europe too.

RoyMcC

Thanks cfitz, must get myself more clued in.

Is the first of those just every four years? And generally, how many athletes would we have qualifying for the Euro juniors?

cfitz

European Youth Olympics is every 2 years I think (google 'EYOF'). There's also a World Youth Championships that I failed to mention in my previous post. I think we sent 8 juniors to the Europeans last year but I'm not sure whether it's usually around that number or not.

thirtyfoot

http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/Current%20Qualifiers%20Championships%202007%20April071.pdf

Some qualifier listings are here, numbers at underage are as good as they ever have been. There were times we would send 2 or 3 athletes to World Juniors and not 17 or 18. Gary Ryan and all the athletes coaches have done well.

Great running by Woods, he is a star in the making.

RoyMcC

Thanks for the info guys. Good to hear the positive news in a sport that's apparently dying in Ireland, as one or two would have me believe.

And certainly we should celebrate success at juvenile/junior level without piling on the expectation that all will necessarily succeed as seniors.

Pherekydes

Curtis Woods finished 4th in the final with 47.27. :eek:

This guy is still only 16!

Lewis finished 2nd in the Long Jump with 5.85m and Ed Mourbey took 3rd in the Pole Vault with 4.70m.

Lewis and Woods also compete in the 200m.

Pherekydes

Mageean took bronze in the 1500m. Time TBC.

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