Preparations well advanced for indoor track and field championships Athletics Northern Ireland and Athletics Ireland are pleased to announce that Irish Olympian Paul Hession will be competing in the Woodie’s DIY Irish Indoor Senior Championships at the Odyssey Arena Belfast on 7th-8th February next year. This is the sixth Irish Indoors meeting in the North which has been made possible by the generous assistance of title sponsor Woodie’s DIY and funding partners Belfast City Council and Sport Northern Ireland. Once again upwards of 1000 athletes will be participating at the landmark Odyssey Arena, which hosts Ireland’s only indoor hydraulic 200-metre running track.
It will once again be transformed into a showcase for top class athletics from around the world, for the biggest event in the athletics calendar. This year competition for places on the Irish Team for the European Indoor Championships in Italy will be hotly contested and Paul Hession will be vying for his place on the 8th February.
Paul continued his purple racing patch after Beijing to finish third in the Gateshead International and then was denied victory in the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart where he lost by a mere one hundredth of a second to Stephen Buckland of Mauritius.
Paul’s domination in Irish sprinting is such that he currently holds no less than 5 records- outdoors at 100m, 200m and 300m plus indoors over 60m and 100m. At the Odyssey in February 2007 he set a then Irish Record of 6.63 seconds over 60m when defeating England’s Lloyd Rice.
On 15th November 2008 Paul was awarded the coveted titles Track Athlete of the Year and the highly prestigious Athlete of the Year at the annual Athletics Association of Ireland awards dinner.
Local middle distance ace Ciara Mageean had an outstanding debut senior 1500m race in the 2008 Irish Indoors. Fifteen year old Ciara took a massive 8 seconds off her PB to defeat Roseanne Galligan and set a new Irish junior record of 4.26.52. With performances like this, the Portaferry girl is rapidly becoming one of the most exciting prospects in Irish athletics. Ciara continued to have an outstanding year reaching the final of the World Junior Championships in Poland, taking the bronze 1500m medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in India and has been named on the Irish Junior team travelling to Brussels for the European Cross Country Championships in two weeks.
Also appearing at the Odyssey will be Northern Ireland sprint star Amy Foster who took the Irish 100m title in Dublin over the summer. She is a former European Youth Olympics medalist. One of her aims next season is to break Linda McCurry’s long standing 200ms record which stretches back to the 1970s.
Mr Ray Colman, Chief Executive of title sponsor Woodie’s DIY said:
Woodie’s DIY are delighted to continue our sponsorship of the Irish Indoor Athletics Championships in the Odyssey Arena in February 2009. We are looking forward to a great Championships, which will have added significance being so close to the European Indoors in Turin next March. We are looking forward to working with Athletics Northern Ireland and the Athletics Association of Ireland, bringing this national event to the fabulous Odyssey Arena. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all the athletes every success in the Championships and hope they reach their desired standards and goals”.
Funding partners includes the Belfast City Council. Speaking at the launch, Lord Mayor Tom Hartley said:
“‘Belfast City Council is dedicated to the development of sport. We are proud to support this event now in its sixth year and are pleased to be working in partnership with Athletics Northern Ireland and the Athletic Association of Ireland to deliver this prestigious event for Belfast”.
Brian McCargo from Sport Northern Ireland added:
“Sport Northern Ireland, the lead agency for developing sport in Northern Ireland, is delighted to once again sponsor this International Event. The Woodie’s DIY Irish Indoor Championships has grown year on year, helping to raise the international profile of Northern Ireland. These championships attract world-class athletes, benefiting our local athletes and sports systems. Sport Northern Ireland is proud to be associated with this event and wishes all the participants the best of luck.”
Woodie’s DIY Irish Indoor Athletic Championships is also sponsored by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL) and the official accommodation partner is the Premier Inn who have two hotels based in Belfast- Waring Street (171 rooms) and Alfred Street Hotel (148 rooms).
Also launched today is the revamped event website, www.indoorathletics.net, which will provide all competitors and spectators information on the event