NI Commonwealth Youth Games Team Honoured

The Northern Ireland Sports Awards were hosted by the Ramada Hotel in Belfast on Monday 19th January, in conjunction with the Belfast Telegraph and Magners Irish Cider.  The event was to honour Northern Ireland's sporting stars from 2008 in a glitzy black tie ceremony.

Cyclist and Olympic Silver medalist Wendy Houvenaghel was crowned 2008 Belfast Telegraph Sports Star of the Year, she was the first athlete from Northern Ireland to win an Olympic medal since 1992.

Our very own Northern Ireland Commonwealth Youth Games Team won Young Team of the Year after their unprecedented nine medal haul in Pune back in October.  Ciara Mageean, Curtis Woods and Hannah Lewis received the award on behalf of the team along with officers from the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games Council.  It has been an great year for the Northern Ireland YOuth Games athletes, after having done so well in Pune last October they were recently honoured in Parliament buildings during a recpetion with the minister of Sport, Matthew Hall had been selected for GB at the Youth Olympics Festival in Australia along with Archery Ace Mark Nesbit and now winning the 2008 Young Team of the Year is the icing on the cake of a successful year.

I'm sure we will watch their future progress with anticipation.