Date 5th April 06

 UU v's QUB Varsity Match Day
The first pilot UU v QUB Varsity Match Day at UUJ took place yesterday and Monday evening. The results were as follows:

Athletics - University of Ulster
Men's Rugby - Queens
Men's Soccer - University of Ulster
Men's Basketball - Queens
Men's GAA Football - Queens forfeited Game

                                                                ...read more.

Date 27 March 06
                                              UUJ LADIES GFC O'CONNOR SHIELD WINNERS

The University of Ulster Jordanstown’s GAA ladies footballers lifted the O’Connor Shield with a comprehensive 1-13 to 1- 02 victory over University College Cork in the All-Ireland Colleges final. Played in torrential rain in Dundalk, UUJ were on top from start to finish ensuring they reclaimed the title they last held in 2002.

With no less than 13 Tyrone players on the panel, the win was a fantastic achievement by the only Ulster side to reach the finals’ weekend. Captained by Aodh Ruadh’s Katrina Murphy, UUJ’s win ensured that a turbulent injury-plagued season ended on a high note.

After a blistering start UUJ built up a commanding 1-1 to 0-7 lead by the break which they never really looked in danger of losing. With Dromore’s Sinead Mc Laughlin controlling matters from the full-back line and the midfield pairing of Trillick’s Sarah Donnelly and Donegal’s Aoife Mc Donnell totally dominating proceedings, it was relative plain sailing for the UUJ.

Ten minutes into the second half they were dealt a blow though when Fermanagh  attacking ace Caroline Little was ‘sin binned’ but they weathered the storm and finished the stronger, with Errigal Ciaran’s  Nuala McGarvey firing over four points on the way to victory.

Tyrone’s Eimear Teague completed a remarkable return from injury and got a great cheer when she came on as a late substitute. However, pride of place must go to Dromore’s Orla O’Neill, whose personal tally of 1-2 and an all-action performance saw her clinch the coveted ‘Player of the Match’ accolade and a place on the Colleges  All-Stars selection to reward a fantastic display.

“It’s always nice to get singled out for praise, but at the end of the day it’s only a reflection of how well the whole team is doing. A UUJ win was the only thing that mattered, and I’m just glad that I could help make that happen,” said Orla.

“It’s been a rough ride for us this season and at times events on the field were
forced into second place. Through it all, the unique team spirit shone brightly and only those involved with the club can fully appreciate this.

 “Anyone who has been in the squad this season knows just how much of a roller-coaster it has been for us. We’ve been wrecked by accident and injury. Going into the final, there was only one possible outcome in our minds. We achieved that, and it’s nice to finish the season on a high and to bring the curtain down in happy circumstances.”

Date: 20 February 06

ANNA REACHES BOILING POINT FOR GAMES

Anna Boyle, University of Ulster Sports Scholar and student of Sport and Exercise Sciences, has smashed the Irish 60 metres indoor record on her way to winning gold at the Irish Indoor Championships in Belfast .

The 22 year old from Dunloy, Co. Antrim, recorded a blistering time of 7.32 seconds, beating Amadine Aliou Affoue of the Ivory Coast, and Emily Maher, as well as the outgoing title and record holder, Ailis McSweeney.

Anna headed down-under last week to prepare for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne , Australia , where she will fine tune her condition for the 100 metres event over the coming weeks. On March 9 th , she will take part in a race meeting which will be a good indicator for Games form. Anna has not ruled out a place in the starting blocks in the final of the 100 metres in Melbourne .

Final conditioning over the coming weeks will be key to an optimum performance for the UU student at the Games, and the sporting community here is holding its breath!

Meanwhile, other UU Athletics Club members put in some sterling performances in other athletics disciplines, with Eva Massey taking the gold medal in the shot putt with a distance of 15.52 metres, showing good form before the Commonwealth Games.

Lindsey Monteith set a personal best of 2 minutes 12.70 seconds in the 800 metres to sweep the gold medal too. Lesley Leung won gold in the triple jump to set a new Irish Junior record of 14.09 metres, also jumping 6.89 in the long-jump to take the bronze medal. Jeremy Harper won the bronze medal in the shot-putt and Mandy Gault lifted silver in the long-jump, while sprinter Jonny Davis took a bronze medal in the 60 metres.

Date: 17 February 06   

         KARATE KID DOUGAL STAGES OUTSTANDING COMEBACK             

University of Ulster student and sports scholar, Ruairi Dougal, last weekend staged an amazing comeback to win Gold at the British Universities Sports Association Karate Championships, held in Edinburgh.

Donegal man Dougal, a postgraduate student in Advanced Accounting at Jordanstown, made a huge effort to lose 2 kilograms of extra weight on Saturday morning, in order to gain entry to the competition. Intensive running sessions and limited food and fluid intake were key to this. 

On his way to the gold medal, Ruairi won a total of 4 fights, taking out the first 3 with ease, winning 10-0, 9-2, and 9-0. The last bout was much different, however, with his opponent, a member of the Scottish National Karate team, leading 8-0, leaving only one point between him and the gold medal. The Donegal fighter, however, dug deep and fought back to win the final by 9-8.  

Next on the agenda for the UU sports star are the Belgian and Dutch Open Championships in March.

 Date: 04 January 06

SWIMMING SUCCESS FOR CARRICK STUDENT

20 year old Carrick fergus swimmer, Jonathon Niblock, had considerable success at the recent Ulster swimming hampionships taking home a gold medal in the 100 metres freestyle event, as well as gold in the 4 x 100 metres freestyle relay, and a bronze in the 50 metres freestyle.

In the process, the talented UU student of Politics set two personal best times, and a new Ulster Senior record in the relay event. This brings an exciting close to 2005 for Jonathon, who has trained hard both in and out of the water all year round. “I train in the pool five or six times a week, and use the Fitness Suite at the Sports Centre at the University a few times a week too, working on cardio-vascular fitness and endurance to keep weight down”.

Jonathon is currently a member of the Ulster Swim Squad and has previously been multi-Ulster champion at Boys and Junior level, success which looks set to continue well into his Senior career.

Date: 12th December 05

 Controversy Surrounds UUJ’s latest All-Ireland Win

Controversy surrounded the game on Saturday between the University of Ulster at Jordanstown (UUJ) and University College Dublin (UCD) whenever the away team of UCD failed to arrive at the match start time of 1pm. The Northern Ireland Volleyball Association (NIVA) referee in charge, Alan Wright, declared the first set 25-0 to UUJ at 1pm as per the league rules and waited for the UCD team to arrive.

At 1:10pm UCD arrived and amid arguments and confusion the second set got under way at 1:20pm. UCD took an early lead in the set and lead the whole way until UUJ staged a remarkable comeback late in the set to take the set 25-22. An injury to Northern Ireland and UUJ middle blocker David Hamilton the only set-back to the set.

In the third set of the afternoon UUJ were never behind after building up a comfortable lead of 15-10 by the time UCD had burned their second and last time-out of the set. UUJ continued to pull away and with eight match-points in the bag started to flounder without the middle blocking of Hamilton and the UUJ team lost the next six points before Alan Workman was able to find a gap in the UCD block and kill the point and the match much to the relieve of the other UUJ players.

This win is the fourth in a row in the All-Ireland League for the UUJ Students and means they stay in joint second place with Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in the leage after TCD defeated Newbridge 3-0: 25-14, 25-17, 25-20 in the other game of the day.

UUJ’s only loss of the season coming away from home to Dublin College University (DCU), but retribution is high on the agenda for UUJ and the home match against DCU is scheduled for the 21^st January when UUJ hope for a fully fit squad to attempt to square up the series with DCU.

UUJ defeated DCU 3-0 last week in the semi-final of the 18^th Annual Blockbusters Tournament on their way to the winning the title after defeating the London based White Eagles 3-2 in the final.

The league rule 6.4.1.7 states:

 “A Team failing to appear on court to play at the listed starting time shall forfeit the first set, 25-0”.

The league rule 6.4.1.8 states:

“A Team failing to appear on court ready to play within 15 minutes of the listed start time shall forfeit the Match 0-3 (25:0, 25:0, 25:0) a fine of €127 shall be imposed on that Team”.

UUC Judo Club

The intrepid warriors of Coleraine recently attended the North-west open championship in the Long-Tower Leisure centre in Derry. UUC were represented successfully in three weight categories with Lisa-Marie Worseford winning silver in the middle kyu. Ryan McGill winning Bronze in the U-60kgs kyu and John Montgomery winning Bronze in the lower kyu. This is a fantastic result for a well established club. We look forward to more wins throughout the year from this Coleraine Contingent.                                           

UUJ Volleyball Team Win Irish Intervarsities as UCD make History       

UUJ completed the perfect tournament on Saturday by winning the Men’s Irish Intervarsities without losing a single set. In the women’s competition UCD made history by becoming the first women’s team to ever win the competition for five consecutive years.

UUJ defeated Waterford IT 3-0 in the men’s final on Saturday evening although it could be argued that the UUJ match was less of a crowd pleaser than the women’s final as UCD had to come from 2 sets to nil down to win the 5th set 15-13 to take the women’s title from the battling University College Cork (UCC).

The UUJ win comes as they are having their best ever season, currently topping the Northern Ireland 1st Divi... more