This article is from page 37 of the 2009-07-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 37 JPG
YOUNG Ruan angler, Paul Norton, returned home last week after help- ing the Irish U-16 team to the silver medal at an international competition THOMA EN ene
Norton was one of the mainstays of the Irish team, beating his direct competitors from England, Scotland and Wales on both days of competi- n(n
His performance was enough to lift the Irish team to second overall.
The competition took place in Wales last weekend and featured the best
sea anglers from each country going head to head in team competition.
“There was a bit of work involved in getting there. I started off by getting on the Munster team and after that I fished in the inter-provincials. The top five from the inter-provincials made it onto the Irish team,” he said.
‘There were four countries taking part and each country had an U-16, U-21 and senior team.
‘There were a lot of fishermen tak- ing part but I was in a zone against one U-16 angler from England, Scot- land and Wales.
‘‘T managed to win the zone on both
days which was great. It’s a team competition and we won the silver medal when all the scores were put together. We fish as a team, this is nothing to do with individuals, it’s all about the team.”
Paul was the only Clare representa- tive on the team and was joined by young anglers from Waterford and Dublin. The angler fished from the beach with dogfish, flounder and tur- bot the main fish on offer.
‘There is a good bit of beach fishing in Clare. There is a nice bit of rock fishing around Fanore and we would fish in Lahinch in the night time as
well as Fanore beach or Spanish Point. It’s not just in Clare either, I travel around a good bit with my Dad and fish in different counties,” he continued.
“T am very happy at how things turned out. It was great experi- ence over there. I would really like to thank everyone who sponsored me and helped me along the way. I couldn’t do it without their help.
“Next year I will be in the U-21 section which will be exciting. I will have to start from the bottom and fish my way up all over again but hope- fully I can do that.”