TENNIS: Malahide Tennis Club’s first team is still celebrating a memorable victory in the Dublin Leagues premier class last Sunday – only a third in the club’s long history. After eight weeks of play, first in the round robin and then in the play-offs, Malahide beat Donnybrook in the final, in Templeogue.
Ex-Davis Cup player Stephen Nugent scored the winning point for this committed team, with pro circuit player James Cluskey flying from Spain to help the cause and then heading immediately for Serbia after the job was done.
Every member of the squad is home grown. Current Irish Close champion Colin O’Brien, whose father Peter is a lifelong Malahide man, has never know any other club. After an 18-month injury lay-off, he was the team’s not-so-secret weapon and was unbeaten throughout the tournament. Captaining the team was the veteran Maurice Kenny, with Niall Baragwanath, Simon Harkin and Daragh Rowan all playing vital roles in the victory and about 12 members in total playing for the squad.
It’s turning into a good year for Malahide, a community-based club with 1,500 members, whose sixth and seventh teams also made their division play-offs in the league and eight teams in action overall. Club captain Alan Buckley now has the briefest of breaks with the mixed league and then the seniors (veterans) to come. “And then it will be the floodlit league and then the winter – it never stops!”, he says.
ORIENTEERING: Aine McCann proved best of the Irish in 73rd place in a tough and physical long race at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in the Czech Republic. After a solid start McCann finished in 79 mins 13 secs; Niamh Corbett was 110th of the 148 starters. Two days later, McCann finished a fighting 10th in the middle distance B race over 2.4km.
On the men’s long 9.9km course, Poland’s Piotr Parfisnowicz was the only one of the 169 starters to break 70 minutes, finishing in 69 mins 21 secs. For Ireland, Jack Miller proved best finishing 86th place, seventeen minutes behind the winner, followed a minute later by Jonathan Quinn and then Eoin McCullough and Niall McCarthy. In the 3.10km middle distance B race, Quinn lost time early on and finished 48th , while in the C race, Miller was 14th McCullough 19th and McCarthy 48th.
CANOEING: With the National Marathon Canoeing Championships taking place at Leixlip on the weekend of July 20, Peter Egan of Salmon Leap laid down a marker when he won the 27km Carrick Marathon at the weekend. In second place was the veteran Deaglain “Digger” O Drisceoil. A non-ranking race takes place at Kilcullen on Sunday July 14.
HOCKEY: Loreto’s Jessica McGirr will captain the Irish team at the Women’s Euro Hockey U18 Championships starting at UCD on July 29. The Irish squad, including eight players from Leinster, will face Netherlands, France and Wales in their group matches, with the powerful Dutch squad expected to top the group. Teams from Germany, Belgium, England and Russia will play in a second group. The final takes place on Sunday August 4.
DUATHLON: Irish duathlon champion Cathal O’Donovan of Cork Tri won the third of the Runways Dublin Duathlon Series in the Phoenix Park. O’Donovan ran a course record 7 mins 56 secs for the opening leg, finishing in 36 mins 27 secs. Killian Heery, in second place, was over a minute adrift, with Jude McEntee a close third and Gary Crossan fifth and first over 40. Aoife Lynch of Pulse Tri was first woman in 43 mins 46 secs. Suzy Macken was second and Gena Byron third.
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