David Gillick Launches Exciting Schools Campaign

Double European Indoor 400m Champion and Olympian David Gillick launched an exciting new schools initiative as part of the New Breed campaign. The new campaign is being organised by Irish Schools Athletics with support from apparel sponsor New Balance and the Athletics Ireland Regional Development Team. The initiative aims to identify Ireland’s new breed of athletic talent with the help of 400m star athlete David Gillick who knows a thing or two about track and field!

Talent ID

The campaign began on Tuesday, 14th of April in Mount Sackville School in Dublin where sixty first year pupils were put through their paces by David Gillick and regional development officer Daniel Kilgannon.  The 1st year pupils under the expert guidance of David Gillick completed the following tests on a fun filled morning of athletics in the school grounds.

• Speed Gates (pupils were timed over 30m sprints using the state of the art speed gate equipment)
• Standing Long Jump
• Standing High Jump

Commenting at the event Irish Schools Coordinator Anthony White said “Increasing participation in sport is a key driver behind the New Breed initiative, we focus on first years as it is a major transition in their lives and we are trying to make it easier for them to continue to be active into their secondary school days so they can remain active and experience the joy of athletics. This is a fantastic way to introduce first years to athletics and one in which may unearth the next Olympian”.

Ireland’s Next Big Star!

Following on from the initial day in Mount Sackville in Dublin the New Breed initiative moved to Carrigaline Community School in Cork on the 15th of April and concluded in Sligo Grammer School in Sligo on the 22nd of April.  The three schools were being used as a pilot for the programme with a view to expansion of how more schools can get involved to be released in September 2015 on the commencement of the new school term.

Objective

The long term objective of the programme is to discover the future stars of the sport in our secondary schools and link them up with their local clubs in order to nurture and develop their athletic talent. Further information will be posted on the expansion of the New Breed initiative once the schools competition season is completed mid-summer.