Bridlington

DAILY REPORTS
Day One	Day Two	Day Three	Day Four	Final Scores
WORLD JUNIOR AND YOUTH SHORE CHAMPIONSHIP This year's FIPS-M World Junior and Youth Shore Angling Championships were held in Bridlington, England over the Easter holidays. The Irish Federation of Sea Anglers entered a team in each category. The junior team (under 16's) consisted of James Duffy Wicklow Bay, Adam Crowe Abbeyside, Kevin McCartan Rinnashark, Sean O'Dea Howth, and Paul Nolan Kilmore. The youth team (under21's) consisted of Stephen Brennan, Jonathan Costello, both Bray Outcasts, Karl Fogarty, Adrian Glass, both Raheny, and Andrew McDonnell Crosshaven. Both teams were managed by the National Youth Officer, Peter Flahive who appointed Tony Byrne to coach the juniors and Eamonn Fogarty to coach the youths. Tony and Eamonn are top match anglers and have represented their country in the past. Their vast knowledge was of great benefit to the teams. The Irish team arrived two days early and put this time to good use. These days were spent fishing the match beaches. The weather was foul with a strong north easterly blowing on to the beaches. The conditions suited the Irish as the qualifiers to make the teams were fished in similar conditions. The Continental teams were finding it hard to cope with the conditions. On the official practice day none of the countries were prepared to give away team tactics and so the catches were small.
Day One Saw an improvement in the weather. In the juniors Croatia got of to a good start with three zone wins and a second to put them in first place. The best of the Irish was Paul Nolan with a zone win. This put Paul into second in the individual rankings and Ireland fourth in the team event. The youth section saw England take the lead with four second zone placings. The Irish team was fifth, one point behind Holland.
Day Two Croatia continued where they left off by winning the team event in the juniors. Ireland ended the day in fifth place. Adam Crowe was the top Irish with third in his zone. Holland won the youths with Portugal second Ireland third and England fourth. Stephen Brennan ended the day with eleven fish to take second in his zone. The overall rankings at this stage were: Juniors 1st Croatia 2pts. 2nd Italy 6pts. 3rd Portugal 7pts. Joint 4th England, France and Ireland with 9pts each. Youths 1st Portugal 4pts. Joint 2nd England and Holland 5pts. Joint 4th France and Ireland 8pts. 6th Italy 13pts. 7th Spain 14pts. 8th Croatia 15pts.
Day Three The sea was flat calm and remained that way for the rest of the competition. Croatia wrapped up the junior section with their third win in a row. This put them in an uncatchable position and gave them gold with one day to go. James Duffy put in a good performance to win his zone. The team ended the day in forth to pull ahead of England but fell behind France. The youth section saw a lot of changes with Portugal having a bad day and ending fifth and third in the rankings. England came in first on the day and moved into gold position. Holland were second on the day and held their second placing. Ireland maintained their mid table spot. Jonathan Costello had a zone win. This put him into fifth place on the day and seventh overall.
Day Four The Irish juniors had a bad day with only two anglers weighting in and so lost any chance of bringing home any medals. Croatia having already won gold only managed third, low by their standards. Portugal came first and England second. The Irish youths went onto the beach with a determent attitude. They needed a great performance and a bit of luck to go their way. The fishing started off slow with not many fish been landed. Any fish caught were at distance .Jonathan Costello put a three hook trace with small baits out as far as he could and was rewarded with three dabs. He already had one fish so this gave him a good start. A couple of casts later he pulled in another treble. By the end of the match Jonathan had ten counters on his card. The word on the beach was that Jonathan was the top angler on the day. It was down to the results of other anglers whether or not he was in the individual medals. The rest of the team were also catching fish and came off the beach in third place.
For Ireland to get into the medals they had to beat Portugal by four places. There was a long wait for the final results to come out. For the next two hours all sort of calculations were been worked out. Had the Irish won one, two or no medals? Only the official results would tell. When the moment of truth came there were great celebrations. Jonathan had moved from seventh to second place to take silver. In the team event Portugal had a disaster and came in eighth. This gave Ireland third place and a bronze medal.
Final Results:- Juniors (under 16's) 1st Croatia 2nd Portugal 3rd Italy 4th France, 5th England 6th Ireland. Youths (under 21's) 1st England 2nd Holland 3rd Ireland 4th Portugal 5th Spain 6th France 7th Croatia 8th Italy. Individual Results :- Best of Irish Juniors:- Paul Nolan 9th. Youths:- Jonathan Costello 2nd

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