In early July Team Ireland headed to the World University Games in Napoli with a delegation of 75 people including 53 athletes and 22 officials to compete in four sports, Athletics, Archery, Football (Men’s and Women’s) and Taekwondo.
There was plenty of memorable moments during the games with the highlight coming on the track on July 11th as IT Carlow student Marcus Lawler won a bronze medal in the final of the Men’s 200 Metres running a time of 20.55 in the final. On the same night on the track Sarah Lavin (University College Dublin) and Phil Healy (Waterford IT) finished in 4th and 6th respectively in finals also.
The Women’s Football team provided some unforgettable moments during their competition, the highs of defeating Brazil 1-0 on the opening night of competition, defeating South Korea to top the group, before the ultimate heart ache of losing out on penalties to Russia in the Bronze medal game after scuppering a two goal lead with 20 minutes remaining in normal time.
The men’s football team finished in 8th place after a very encouraging group campaign saw them qualify for the quarter finals before they lost out to Russia and ultimately France on penalties in the 7th/8th place play off.
Jack Woolley (TU Dublin) was unable to find his best form in the Taekwondo competition but will gain massive international experience from the competition in Napoli.
On the archery field the highlight was a new senior Irish record for our Mixed team of Niamh Merry (Dublin City University) and Daniel Foley (TU Dublin) in the compound event.
All images credit to Tommy Dickson, Inpho Photography