Nineteen young sports stars have been selected to represent Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Youth Games in October of this year.
The Commonwealth Youth Games will be hosted by the City of Pune in India and will act as a prelude to the main Games in India’s Capital City of Delhi in 2010.
The Youth Games are traditionally a smaller version of the main Games, however organise
rs are expecting over 1,300 athletes and 350 officials from 71 countries to participate in the nine sports included namely; athletics, badminton, boxing, shooting, swimming, table-tennis, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. Northern Ireland will have representatives competing in six of the nine sports.
Three local athletes - Curtis Woods from Carrick will compete in the athletics 200m and 400; Larne’s Matthew hall will take part in Shooting smallbor rifle prone and rifle 3-P, while Connor Leaney from Ballynure will be action in the swimming pool in 50, 100m, and 200m freestyle.
The III Commonwealth Youth Games will be hosted by Pune from 12 to 18 October 2008 at the magnificent Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports City, Balewadi. The notable feature of this event is that the competition venues of all sports events and the Athletes Village are located in one single complex. It occupies an area of 153 acres and combines well laid out, world class sports competition and training facilities together with the accommodation that will house the athletes throughout the Games.
The main Athletics stadium has a seating capacity of 20,000 and will be the venue for the Opening and Closing ceremonies. The Athletes Village can house 1,800 athletes and team officials and is equipped with the most modern facilities to ensure that the needs of the athletes are met.
The list of young athletes with the honour of representing Northern Ireland at the Youth Games are;
Ciara Mageean - Athletics 800m & 1500m.
Gaby McNally - Athletics Hammer.
Curtis Woods - Athletics 200m & 400m.
Hannah Lewis - Athletics 200m & Long Jump.
Ben Reynolds - Athletics High Jump & 110m Hurdles.
Edward Mourbey - Athletics Pole Vault.
Sinead Chambers - Badminton Singles.
Tony Stephenson - Badminton Singles.
Michael Conlon - Boxing Light Flyweight.
Neil Walker - Boxing Flyweight.
Paul Hyland - Boxing Featherweight.
Sean Duffy - Boxing Lightweight.
Connor Doyle - Boxing Welterweight.
Matthew Hall - Shooting Smallbore Rifle Prone & Rifle 3-P.
Ashley Givan - Table Tennis Singles & Doubles.
Claire Nelson - Table Tennis Singles & Doubles.
Connor Leaney - Swimming 50m, 100m, 200m Freestyle.
Chelsey Wilson - Swimming 50m, 100m, 200m Backstroke.
Michael Dawson - Swimming 50m, 100m, 200m Breaststroke.
The 3rd Commonwealth Youth Games are from 12th to 18th October 2008.
The full article contains 433 words and appears in Larne Times newspaper.
