GOLDEN BOY
THE district has a new golden boy. Sixteen year old Mark Nesbitt from Banbridge, competing for Team GB and an archer with Ballyvally Archery Club, has just returned home after winning archery gold medals in both the individual and team events at the Australian Youth Olympics.
Mark was one of 250 young people representing Team GB in Sydney with athletes from over 20 countries competing in 21 Olympic sports. The British Olympic Association regards these young people as the 2012 hopefuls.
Said Mark, "Winning the individual and then the team event has got to be my best performance yet. Both results are pretty special, espically as we were shooting against people who are quite a bit older than us.
"It was great to be at the AYOF, mixing and learning from other sports, getting to know and make new friends."
Mark had some time to acclimatise to the heat and humidity in Brisbane before he flew south to the competition in the Sydney Olympic Park.
Although suffering from a chest infection, in the individuals semi final Mark dispatched the top seed Hsiu-Yu Hu from Chinese Taipei to clinch a place in the final where he faced the world junior champion, Ryan Tyack from Australia.
Nineteen-year-old Tyack had much more experience under his belt and the lead changed hands several times. However Mark held his nerve and shot a bulls-eye with his final arrow to win by one point.
young
Earlier a relatively young and inexperienced GB team, made up of Mark, Alec Wheeler and Antony Wood faced the might of the Chinese Taipei archers but they fought hard. At the final arrow Chinese Taipei were five points ahead but Mark shot the final arrow and scored 10 ensuring Team GB won team gold by five points.
This was only the men's team second international tournament together.
Councillor Junior McCrum joined the tributes to Mark, saying, "This is a wonderful achievement by someone so young.
"Congratulations to Mark on his remarkable double gold medal win."
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Weather for Banbridge
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 5 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
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