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Jason in Line for Award Words: Malcolm McCausland |
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Schoolboy Jason Smyth holds the best hopes of local success at next weekend’s Belfast Telegraph Sports Awards. Smyth is nominated in the category for disabled athletes.
His talent was quickly spotted after a casual visit to City of Derry Athletics Club in the summer of 2003 and was put in touch Coach Stephen Maguire. It was a fortunate meeting which has led to outstanding success culminating in double gold in the European Paralympics which followed the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki last summer. Equaling the world T13 mark (partially sighted) in the 100 metres and smashing the 200 metres mark mean that the Eglinton youngster is Ireland’s only current active world record-holder. Informed sources believe that Smyth will be allocated as much as €40,000 when the Irish Sports Council (ISC) announces early next week the grants for the current 12 months. However, all this comes with a cost not just in terms of commitment to training as Jason found out recently. Sitting in the library at school he was informed that a man in a white coat was at the door looking for him. He thought initially that it was a wind-up but in actual fact an official had been dispatched by the ISC to test the young Spartan for drugs. Naturally, Smyth was given a clean bill of health but this has not stopped the ISC from subjecting him to a subsequent test as the governing body of sport continues to rid the country of drug takers after the shambolic Michelle DeBruin case some years ago. Coach Maguire confirmed yesterday that his charge would see early action in the New Year when he competes in the Irish Indoor Championships at the Odyssey on December 18/19.
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The
18-year-old Limavady Grammar School pupil is still coming to terms with an
incredible 24 months which has seen him propelled from obscurity to the point
where he is likely to be Ireland’s best funded athlete this year.