Irish athletes strike gold six times

TEAM IRELAND:  Team Ireland's base camp in Maynooth, Co Kildare, was buzzing last night as its athletes returned home with not just one gold medal but six after a second day of action.

Two golds and three silvers in the pool and four golds and one silver in the field were the highlights of the day.

"We'll never have a day like this again," said athletics coach Phyllis Gilliland. "We had seven people competing in softball and all seven came away with a medal."

The athletics squad's youngest and oldest members - Brian Doran (9), from Co Donegal, and Josie Lambert (65), from Co Mayo - both struck gold in what were difficult softball throwing conditions, with a strong wind blowing into the faces of the competitors.

Lambert's distance of 7.4 metres was almost 4 metres below her throwing average, but that didn't stop her from celebrating. "I knew I could do it," she declared from the top of the winners' podium.

The day was particularly satisfying for Gilliland, a lecturer in sports studies in east Antrim, who designed a ball with a nylon tail for training to assist athletes with their technique.

"The tail teaches them the path the ball takes, and it seems to have worked because they looked well out there. They all had the right technique."

The other softball golds went to Linzi Craig, Ballyclare, Co Antrim, with 10.9 metres; and Nigel Phillips, Bray, Co Wicklow, with 12.49 metres.

The "divisioning" nature of the games was illustrated by the fact that many athletes who threw further came home with lower medals. Richard Lennon from Co Waterford took silver with 15.34 metres, just 20cm more than a Belgian competitor.

Both Sarah Hughes from Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and Barry Langdon from Ballina, Co Mayo, took bronze with throws of 14.9 metres and and 22.25 metres respectively.

At the National Aquatics Centre, Cork's Damien O'Donovan and Laura Jane Dunne from Dundrum, Dublin, took golds in the 100 metres freestyle.

Dubliners Tony McManus and Bríd Lynch won silver medals for the second consecutive day, while Thomas Ryan, who took a bronze in the 100 metres backstroke on Day One, finished runner-up in his freestyle final.

Coach Brenda Pemberton said the team benefited from a sleep-in yesterday morning after a hectic weekend of social events. "None of them were swimming until 1 p.m. So I decided to skip the morning bus, and not to move them until 11 a.m. It was a brilliant day.

"Even those who finished fourth and seventh come in with personal bests. The parents were delighted. The fans were delighted. There was a huge atmosphere and every day it's getting better."

There was medal glory in 10-pin bowling, too. All three Irish teams took bronze medals, one of them hanging around the neck of a proud David McCauley from Derry. The 16-year-old, who had the honour of lighting the Olympic Flame of Hope in Croke Park on Saturday evening, continued to hug the limelight as he made an appearance on Network 2's The Den.