Back in August, Matthew (Year 14, Dobbin’s) and Toby (Year 14, Davis’s) travelled to Trinidad & Tobago to represent NI at the Commonwealth Youth Games! We are so incredibly proud of both boys’ achievements, their hard work and dedication to training has been inspirational. You can read more about their achievements below. 

Toby - Athletics - Men’s 200m

Toby was ranked 18th going into the event out of 42. Toby, who was chosen as the flag bearer for the team, surpassed all expectations by working hard and putting his social life on hold. His results were:

PRELIMINARY ROUND
Heat 3
Toby achieved PB 21.44 (0.01 off the U18 NI record and 0.02 off the All Ireland U18 record). Ranked 4th in the race.

Toby progressed into the semi-finals ranked 3rd overall after his blistering run in the preliminaries. The temperature in the stadium was pushing 40 degrees.

SEMI FINALS
Heat 1
3rd Toby 21.65

Toby was in contention for the final until the last heat just edged him into 9th position overall.

Matthew – Swimming

As part of a 6-person NI Swim team, Matthew travelled to Trinidad to compete in his first Major International Competition.  The team were away for 12 days in August, during which Matthew competed over 4 days in the pool against some of the best swimmers in the world. Matthew acquitted himself extremely well, his results were:

Day 1 200 Brs - Matthew qualified for the final where he finished 7th. This was a fantastic effort, missing the Ulster Junior Record by 0.15 with a new personal best.

Day 2 50 Brs - Matthew agonisingly missed the final finishing in 9th, with another Personal Best.

Day 3 100 Brs - Matthew swam again just missing the final, finishing in 10th.

Day 4 4x100 Mixed Medley - Matthew was part of this NI team who finished 5th overall

Matthew and the NI swim team had a fantastic competition finishing 5th overall in the medal table for Swimming! The best placing of any NI team ever.  This experience has provided Matthew with a great opportunity now to progress over the next few years from Youth to Senior swimming - both in University/College and in more International competitions.