Youth Games Team Announced
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 organisers 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.
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;
1 Ciara Mageean Athletics 800m & 1500m
2 Gaby McNally Athletics Hammer
3 Curtis Woods Athletics 200m & 400m
4 Hannah Lewis Athletics 200m & Long Jump
5 Ben Reynolds Athletics High Jump & 110m Hurdles
6 Edward Mourbey Athletics Pole Vault
7 Sinead Chambers Badminton Singles
8 Tony Stephenson Badminton Singles
9 Michael Conlon Boxing Light Flyweight
10 Neil Walker Boxing Flyweight
11 Paul Hyland Boxing Featherweight
12 Sean Duffy Boxing Lightweight
13 Connor Doyle Boxing Welterweight
14 Matthew Hall Shooting Smallbore Rifle Prone & Rifle 3-P
15 Ashley Givan Table Tennis Singles & Doubles
16 Claire Nelson Table Tennis Singles & Doubles
17 Connor Leaney Swimming 50m, 100m, 200m Freestyle
18 Chelsey Wilson Swimming 50m, 100m, 200m Backstroke
19 Michael Dawson Swimming 50m, 100m, 200m Breaststroke
There will also be a number of backroom staff travelling as part of the Northern Ireland Team including officials, managers, coaches and a team doctor.
The Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games Council, the organisation responsible for the selection, planning and delivery of Northern Ireland Teams at Commonwealth Games announced the delegation of athletes earlier this week and Chairman Robert McVeigh commented; “the Youth Games represent a great opportunity for our young people to be given the chance to compete in the largest country of the Commonwealth in what is probably the best multi games facility that I have ever seen. We look forward to the experience in India and making new friendships this October”.
The 3rd Commonwealth Youth Games are from 12th to 18th October 2008.
