Long-standing school records tumble at St Patrick’s sports day

These were led by Year 8 pupil Sophie McAuley who achieved six gold medals even though she faced tough opposition from Aimee Hegarty.

The Year 8 boys’ star on the day was Jack Higgins who amassed five gold medals. Ronan Ward placed just behind Jack in many events but he eventually won gold in the 800m.

There were a number of year nine stars in the boys section with Lee Walsh, Daniel Wieczorek, Janusz Wojowicz and Matthew Richmond.

Lee Walsh had an outstanding run in the 200m, breaking a 40-year-old record held by Ciaran Patterson since 1970. Ciara Cushenan was the Year 9 girls’ star with five gold medals.

The Year 10 boys would not be overshadowed and there was another school record in this age group as Leon Devlin cleared 1.60m in the High Jump to obtain the record which was held since 1985 by Kevin Merrigan.

Leon achieved a further two gold medals but the middle distance star on the day was David Mucka. Demrey Delantar and Jonathon Richmond excelled in the throwing events.

All the Year 10 girls’ events were hotly contested with Chloe Higgins and Shauna Kerr gaining the most medals.

The Year 11 girls saw yet another school record being broken. Weronika Slawinska won the long jump to take Siobhan Magee’s record which existed since 1983. Weronika won a further three gold medals but was closely challenged by Aisling Reid and Colette Laverty.

There were a number of excellent performances in the Year 11 boys’ events with Aaron Kennan gaining three gold medals. Other gold medal winners in this age group included Dylan Little, Sean Crawford, Aidan Loughran, Brendan Lemon and Kamil Jaworski.

Congratulations to all pupils who participated and achieved personal bests.

The good weather conditions and the pupil’s commitment to athletics training helped in the excellent performances that were achieved, particularly with the three new school records.

The school also congratulates Leon Devlin who competed in last Saturday’s All Ireland Schools Championships, held in Tullamore, Co Offaly.

Having achieved a gold and silver medal at the Nebbssa athletics finals, Leon went on to represent the school at the Ulster championships where he Leon came third in the high jump and he was second in the triple jump, earning his selection for the All-Ireland event.

For more pictures from this event, see this week’s Ballymena Times.