Newcastle AC’s Ian Brannigan recently represented Northern Ireland at the 33rd annual British Transplant Games at the University of Bath and won 3 Gold medals for middle distance running.
The British Transplant Games were first held in Portsmouth in 1978 and are organised by Transplant Sport UK. This year’s games in Bath attracted 800 athletes and 1800 supporters from throughout the UK. The aim of the games is to raise the awareness of the ongoing need for organ donation and to highlight the benefits of transplantation through sport. Ian, who received a life saving kidney transplant in 1998, competed in the 5k road race over a hilly course in Royal Victoria Park and lead the 300 strong field home in a time of 20 min 30 sec. The Newcastle athlete then turned his attention to the 800m and 1500m track events. The 800m race was a tactical affair with a slow first 400m but Ian increased the pace on the second lap opening up a convincing lead and winning in a time of 2 min 33 sec. In his final race, Ian led the 1500m from start to finish and won the event for the 11th time in 5 min 20 secs.
Ian has been competing at the British and World Transplant Games since 1999 winning 38 British titles and 11 World titles. He will now continue his training over the coming year in preparation for the 2011 British Transplant Games in Belfast and also hopes to gain selection to the British team for the 2011 World Transplant Games in Sweden.
Ian would like to express his sincere thanks to his family, Newcastle AC, Transplant Sport Northern Ireland and the staff of Belfast City Hospital for their support over the past year.