The crowd roars: "Go on Charles!" Implores: "Pick it up, Charles!" Pleads: "Ah Charles, go on . . . just one . . . just one!" It's the Bean Bag Lift and Charles Phelan is the focus of every eye and raw throat in the hall. Shane Swift, the MC, bellows encouragement loud enough to be heard back in Charles's native Kilkenny. Kathy Sheridan reports from Belfast
Breda Ryan, the coach, lifts a little bean bag to remind him of what is involved: lift it up, put it in the basket, lift another one up, put it in the basket. "Go on, Charles, you can do it!" But Charles is in no mood for it. The 21-year-old's head, lowered shyly to one side, sinks lower and lower. Finally, it comes to rest flat on the table.
Breda knows when she is beaten and escorts him out.
The crowd - families of the athletes and volunteers - sighs good-humouredly. They know Charles will be back, because that's the way it goes. His event comes under the banner of Motor Activities, a rare glimpse of human striving at its most elemental, poignant and triumphant.
"Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt," goes the Special Olympics athlete's oath. And sure enough, a while later, Charles does return, this time with Deirdre Gleeson doing the coaching - or "having a go", as she puts it.
The crowd cheers, willing him on. But once again, Charles's head lowers to the table. Deirdre wheels him away.
Suddenly, his head shoots up. The crowd goes wild. The MC roars.
Deirdre wheels him to the table where with great deliberation, Charles picks up the first bean bag and drops it in the basket, followed by another and another . . . The cheers are deafening.
As he wheels forward to receive his medal, flanked by uniformed scouts, the Special Olympics anthem on the sound system, his shy smile is as wide as Antrim town. Clíodhna Whelan, finance director of Meteor, glamorous in her slim, pink suit and high heels, lifts the medal from the proferred cushion and hangs it round his neck, with a word of congratulations. The inexhaustible crowd, urged on by Shane Swift, trebles the volume.
All over Antrim and Belfast, the scene is repeated countless times a day. Tears and laughter, reminiscences of 2003, the year of the World Games in Ireland, are echoed over and over. The legacy of 2003 is robust.
This is the All-Ireland Special Olympics. Of the 30,000 volunteers back then, 7,000 came back for more, joined by another 3,500, making 10 times as many volunteers as the SO had pre-2003. Some 5,500 volunteers from the North are involved in these games, with another 1,000 on the waiting list.
From all over Ireland, 2,000 athletes have come to compete, with 500 coaches and 4,000 family members. Every hotel and B&B bed is booked solid.
Provincial colours rule. Conspicuous in the crowd at the Antrim Forum are Henry and Rose Wise, their relatives Richard and Mary O'Flynn and Dawn Hogan, bedecked from sombrero to painted face to sandals in the Cork colours.
Henry and Rose are the parents of Mary Rose, 14 years old, and being whooshed along in a pink wheelchair, flying two Cork flags. Mary Rose - who can neither walk nor talk and has to be fed through her stomach - has already beaten all before her in the Bean Bag Lift.
Simply getting her into the games, says her mother, "is like winning the Lotto. It's something that everyone who loves her can do with her now. They can play with her and know they're not afraid of hurting her."
Richard says her progress has been "unbelievable". "When she went to the World Games a few years ago, we couldn't believe that she could lift the bean bag and drop it on the floor."
Henry and Rose have a 16-year-old son, Christopher, who is also in a wheelchair with a different syndrome. Mary's eight-year-old son, Ricky, has severe cerebral palsy. "You could lie down and feel sorry for yourself," she says, "but you just get on with it."
The Ball Push event is up next. Mary Rose is waiting among the athletes across the room. Her family sit back, resplendent in their Cork colours, ready to roar.
Anyone who wants to wish them - or any of the Special Olympians - good luck with e-wishes, can log on to www.eircom.net/specialolympics