Ryan Represents Ireland
Congratulations to Daniel Ryan who led Ireland home & finished an
excellent 6
th
place a year out of his age in the Junior Boys U/16
competition at the AVIVA Schools International Combined Events
Championships in the Emirates Arena, Glasglow on Saturday 1
st
December. It was an historic day for the Schools International
athletes who made their own history by being the first athletes to
compete in the newly built, magnificent Emirates Arena which will
host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Amid the top Schools athletes in the British Isles, Daniel representing
his country & his school, Thurles CBS, set 4 new personal bests on
the day & finished with a final score of 3072 points behind a very
strong English team who occupied the top 4 places. In his first event,
the 60m Hurdles, Daniel shot out of the blocks to finish 2
nd
in his race
& record the 3
rd
fastest time overall with a personal best time of
8.58sec. In his second event, he jumped 6.08m, the second best
jump of the competition & recorded another personal best, going
over 6 metres for the first time. The 200m was his 3
rd
event & he
clocked 24.52sec, his 3
rd
personal best of the day. At the end of the
3
rd
event, Daniel was in 2
nd
place overall with the English making up 3
of the top 5 spots. Next up was the Shot Putt where he threw
10.73m but this was an event that was dominated by the English
who started to pull away on points. In the final event of the day,
Daniel ran 2.22.07 knocking just over 4 seconds off his previous best.
However, the English again proved to be the masters of this event
clocking up the points & finishing as the top 4 in the competition
Moycarkey Coolcroo A.C.
overall. Next best of the Irish was Matthew Dalton (Belfast High
School) who finished in 8
th
place, with Jack Murphy (CBC, Cork) in
15
th
place & Aidan Conneely (Calasanctius, Oranmore) in 16
th
place.
The team just missed out on the Bronze medal placing by 49 points
to Wales but it was an exciting & educational experience
nonetheless. Both Daniel & Matthew are under the age again in 2013
& will be hoping to make the individual podium the next time.