Commonwealth Games Athlete News & Progress

Swimming
Portaferry swimmer Sycerika McMahon has earned a bronze medal at the European Junior Championships in Helsinki. The 15-year-old, who is coached by Bobby Madine at the Leander Club in Belfast, was third in Thursday's 400 metres freestyle final. She finished sixth in Wednesday's 400m Individual Medley final in a new personal best of 4:51.03.

McMahon also qualified for the 200m butterfly final but opted out to concentrate on her stronger events. She clocked 2.18.88 in the 200m butterfly semi-final heats. McMahon will also compete in the 200m breaststroke event in Finland.

Archery
NI archery star Mark Nesbitt has been named on 40-strong Great Britain team for next month's first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

Athletics
Paralympian Jason Smyth (City of Derry) has been named Irish squad for the European Championships in Barcelona and will compete in the 100m pending medical clearance on a minor injury. Smyth, who set a new Northern Ireland best of 10.32 last month, missed last weekend's Irish Championships as a precaution due to a hamstring niggle.
Ciara Mageean who has also been selected finished 2nd in the 800m at the AAI National Championships on sunday in a time of 2.05. She is currently in Canada getting ready for the World Junior Championships next week.

Wrestling
The senior Northern Ireland wrestling team were recently invited to enter the Macedonian Pearl FILA Tournament in Stip, Macedonia and a smaller event in Suva Reka, Kosovo where they achieved mixed success. Mark Montgomery took a bronze in the local competition where once again the going was very tough.

Returning from a 10 day training camp in Kosovo, Mark said, “The opportunity of practice with top athletes in that environment is central to my preparations for the Games, I have to work extremely hard to keep up with those guys and they have a way of bringing out the best in our wrestlers”