Sunday 14th August saw the annual Youth Inter-Provincial track meeting take place at the Orangefield Track in Belfast, where the weather was on the rider`s side, and a fine afternoon`s racing took place.
Once again the competition was between Leinster and title-holders Ulster, with a `cross-border-buddies` composite team also making for more interesting competition. 
The event took the format of an Omnium, with various events which saw all riders compete across a range of solo and team races.
Ulster; bidding to win the title for a third year in a row, were first up in the Under 16 Time Trial event, where National Silver medallist Conor Halvey was up against national champion Aaron Wade who was representing Leinster. This time it was Halvey who ran out the winner, with Ulster`s Shay Donley second in 39.69, knocking Wade down to third with 40.75.
The Under 14 Time trial was won by Leinster`s Liam Hanley who dislodged national champion Ciaran Dixon (Ulster) in to second place whilst in the Under 12 event Amber Young (Ulster) ran out the quickest over 100metres with the CBB`s Maria McAllister second.
Following the Time Trial events, Ulster held a commanding lead of 17 points over Leinster on 7 and the Cross-Border-Buddies on 6.
In the Scratch races it was Leinster who provided the winner of the Under 16 and Under 14 races, but as it was team points which counted for the overall, it was once again Ulster who took the lion`s share of the points with 19 to Leinster`s 10.
With Ulster in dominant form, the Under 16 Team Pursuit event saw the home quartet put on a ragged display which compared to the Leinster effort looked like the visitors would take the win, however the Timekeepers confirmed Ulster had managed to win in a time of 3.24.07 to Leinster`s 3.26.38
The Under 14 Team Sprint was yet another close race, with less than half a second separating the two main contenders, 
with Ulster clocking the slightly faster 52.56 against Leinster`s 53.03.
In the Under 12 Flying 200metre event it was again Amber Young who ran out the fastest heading up an Ulster clean sweep, with Adam McGeever and Shay O`Kane making up the top 3.
In the short Sprint events it was Ulster who provided the winner of each age group to consolidate their lead in the overall standings.
The final event of the day was a `Team Spirit – Team Sprint` comprising a rider from each of the age categories combined in to their Provincial team. This time it was Ulster who were soundly defeated, with Leinster the fastest in a time of 51.52, followed by the CBBs in 53.24 and Ulster lagging behind on 53.24, although they had done enough through the day to secure the win, and retain the Sean Mac Aoghain Trophy for the 3rd year running.
Final Overall Standings
Ulster. 72 points.
Leinster. 34 points.
CBB. 21 points.
Photo credit. Anthony Gallagher.
