Five players from Tyrone and Fermanagh have been selected to represent Northern Ireland (U-18 team) at the UK School Games in Coventry from 23rd–27th August.
This is a tremendous boost for the local game with the new season about to commence.
The Clogher Club has three players on the team – Judith Atwell, Catherine Trimble and Ashley Robinson – with Stephen Slater from Lisbellaw and Keith Knox from Trillick. The other three players on the team are from Belfast. The team manager is Tony Philips and the coaches are Jing Yi Gao and Na Lu.
In table tennis, eight teams from across England, Scotland and Wales will also select athletes from the U-18 age group to compete in the boys and girls individual and team competitions. Competition will take place over three days in Coventry.
The UK School Games is a multi-sport event for the most talented teenagers across the UK. The huge success of the inaugural UK School Games in Glasgow in 2006 has resulted in the event receiving funding to extend its competition to 2011.
The 2007 Games has expanded to feature 1,300 athletes competing in eight sports – athletics, badminton, fencing, gymnastics, judo, swimming, table tennis and volleyball, including disability events in athletics and swimming. In each sport, both male and female competitors will participate in a one age group category as agreed and selected by the sports.
Each of the eight sports will be combined into a four-day programme in an environment designed to replicate the feel of a large multi-sport event such as an Olympic or Paralympic Games with, in addition to the competition itself, the experience of an opening and closing ceremony and Athlete Village.
The four-day event will seek to create an inspirational and motivational environment that will encourage more young people to take part and excel in sport and, through a comprehensive review of competition opportunities under way with each sport, be positioned as the pinnacle of competition – with young people ultimately arriving at the UK School Games through local and regional qualifying events.
The showcase opportunity provided by this event offers a great opportunity to promote and secure change within existing competitive structures to involve more young people in volunteering in sport, to create first class child protection and welfare systems in competitive sport and to profile (in national, regional and local media) the outstanding achievements of some of our young sporting talent.
The ultimate goal of the UK School Games is to ensure that by 2012, the UK has a world class competitive sports structure for young people and to profile potential 2012 GB team participants and medallists.
The aim by 2011 is to feature appropriate high-level competition in 12 to 15 sports. As the competition structure for young people in each sport is modernised, this event will provide a showcase environment for the top level of competition for young people in each sport.
