West Tyrone connection to Olympic medal hopeful

WHILE Olympic mainstays like athletics, boxing and swimming will be garnering most of the attention over the coming weeks in Tokyo, the new sport of ‘Sports Climbing’ will be of particular interest to one west Tyrone family.

 

The event is the combination of three different climbing disciplines – bouldering, speed climb and lead climb – each of which require a different type of technique.

 

And one of the top tips for a medal in this event is Team GB’s two times world champion Shauna Coxsey, whose mother Mavis Jolly (nee Stewart) is originally from Castlederg and now lives in Runcorn, Cheshire.

 

Shauna has uncles Mervyn Stewart in Castlederg and Ian Stewart and family who live in McClay Park, Omagh, she also has aunts Carol Gilroy and family in Fermanagh and Sharon and family in Runcorn, who together with her five sisters and brother in Cheshire will all be cheering her along in the coming weeks and hoping she can claim Olympic gold to top off her wonderful career as a professional climber.

 

Shauna, 28, who has been hailed as Britain’s greatest ever climber, has been competing since the age of eight and has won numerous titles including two world championships in 2016 and 2017.  

 

She was also named in the Queen’s Birthday honours list as the recipient of an MBE, the very same week she won the IFSC Bouldering World Cup title.

 

“It would be fantastic for the whole family and for her self if she could get a medal,” said her uncle, Ian Stewart, who feels the timing for Shauna to success at the Olympics could be right.

 

FULL STORY IN THURSDAY’S PAPER