Friends enjoy trip to the UK School Games
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| Friends pupils Caroline Black, Kirsty Walker, Ruaraidh Sim, Matthew
Getty, Ruth Roddis and Rachel On who recently competed in Badminton at the
UK School Games. |
Friends pupils Chloe Boomer and David Thompson who recently competed in the UK School Games in Athletics and Swimming. |
THE UK School Games was held in Cardiff this year from September 3 to 6 and Friends had a huge representation in a wide range of sports.
The Northern Ireland Badminton team consisted of seven players with six selected from Friends including Ruth Roddis, Caroline Black, Kirsty Walker, Rachel Orr, Ruaraidh Sim and Matthew Getty. The other player was Ciaran Chambers of Rathmore Grammar.
In the team event Northern Ireland naturally maintained there usual spot of last place. This however does not reflect the level of badminton played, the team was very unfortunate and most games were very close.
In the individual event, Kirsty Walker reached the quarter finals of the Girl's Singles losing to the eventual finalist. Ruth Roddis and Caroline Black also made it to the quarters in the Girl's doubles, losing to the eventual Scottish winners. Perhaps the most notable performance was from Ruaraidh Sim, who made it to the semi-finals of the boys singles event, where he played, the eventual winner, England's Aaron Cheng. This was a well fought and tight match.
In the swimming event David Thompson of Year 12 led the Irish 400m freestyle relay team to 4th place with a time of 56.1 secs which is an amazing result for David.
In athletics the school was represented by Chloe Boomer. "I was really excited about Cardiff," said Chloe. "I was nervous but took some advice given to us the previous evening by Darren Campbell, he told us to hide the nerves and stare the opposition out. It seemed to work. I had the best start of my whole season and managed to finish second in my heat. "The second heat was a lot faster. Going into the final I was sitting in fifth position and I was aiming for it again. After a final vote of confidence from my coach I headed out to the track. I had another decent start but so did most of the other girls in the
race. It felt like the longest 100m of my life. I scraped 5th place. I was more than pleased with the result and I still have a chance to medal in Newcastle next year."
Friends' pupils Collin Cleland and Jenna McQueen recently competed in the annual UK School Games. Both Colin and Jenna represented Northern Ireland in hockey. This was an excellent experience for the players and was a great opportunity for further development as a high standard of hockey was displayed throughout the tournament.
Both teams did very well winning the bronze medal after narrowly missing out on the silver medal. Colin and Jenna are now training for the forthcoming Interprovincial Tournament to he held in Dublin later this month.
Ulster Star
09/10/2009
