Two current Year 14 pupils from The Wallace High School, Sophie McClean and Sarah Montgomery, recently returned from a 3 week sporting trip of a life time to the Cook Islands where they represented the Northern Ireland under 21 squad in the World Youth Championship.
The girls finished second in their group by virtue of beating Barbados, Scotland and Trinidad and Tobago, whilst they also played against one of the world’s best teams New Zealand.
This put them into the Top 8 phase of the tournament where despite excellent displays from the two Lisburn girls, Northern Ireland lost to Jamaica, Malawi and narrowly to South Africa, thus finishing eighth overall.
Whilst there the girls also had the opportunity to visit a local school who had adopted the Northern Ireland squad for the duration of the tournament and they were also given presents and heard a fantastic rendition of the Cook Islands national anthem.
Commenting on the trip Sarah said “This was an unbelievable tournament to be part of and to play against the best under 21 netball teams in the world was a real learning experience”. Sophie added “The tournament itself was superbly run and we both enjoyed being part of it. Getting the opportunity to visit the school who had adopted us as their country was also an experience that I will never forget”.
Last modified: September 29, 2009
