A young tradesman from Carrickfergus in Co Antrim, roofer Martyn McAllister and his team mate, Matthew Timby from Leeds, were officially crowned World Champions in the pitched roofing category at an awards ceremony for the 23rd World Championship for Young Roofers at the Europa Hotel in Belfast last week.

The event was hosted by the UK's National Federation of Roofing Contractors and saw a total of 23 two-man teams from 12 countries competed for the distinguished title of World Champion in three different roofing disciplines, pitched, waterproofing and metal.

The competition was marked by six international judges working to a specially designed marking scheme, a continual marking process occurring every 30 minutes over a two-day period.

The competition commenced each day at 8.30am with competitors able to stop for lunch and concluded daily at 5pm and while many would be fooled into believing that the team quickest to finish first would be the winners, in fact the key to success was accuracy and as a result team UK were awarded the Gold Award in the pitched roofing category with Silver going to Germany and Bronze to Austria.

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Both Martyn and Matthew were awarded a cheque of €750, a gold medal and a personal trophy to keep, as well as a box of tools from Hilti, one of the competition's sponsors. The main trophy however will be kept at Telford College, Edinburgh where their mentor, Bob Coutts will proudly display their achievement.

This was an especially proud moment for Martyn's employer, Gordon Penrose, from Penrose Roofing Limited who is the current President for the International Federation for the Roofing Trade (IFD).

The IFD is the world-wide highest authority representing the interest of the roofing trade and was established in 1952 in Germany and in Gordon's three years in the role of President he has been unable to award a medal to any team from the UK.

The last time the UK team picked up a medal was in 2005 when the team won a bronze medal in Cape Town and a gold medal dating back to 2000, when the event was hosted in Edinburgh.

Gordon Penrose commented: "I have had the privilege to chair three international congresses firstly in Prague, Czech Republic, secondly in St Petersburg, Russia and finally in my last year as President it was a great honour to bring this international congress to Belfast.

"Acting as an ambassador for Belfast it was particularly poignant in my final role as President to give out a total of four awards to the UK team, gold to the pitched roofing team of which one of the competitors was from Carrickfergus, and silver to the waterproofing and metal roofing teams as well as the President’s prize to the metal roofing team.

"I can only hope that this success will continue in two year's time when the event will be hosted in Zurich, Switzerland."

(GK/BMcC)