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Goron Elliot previews his list of cheltenham runners
Goron Elliot previews his list of Cheltenham runners with Racing TV
Aib All Ireland club camogie finals preview
Senior Final Preview – Slaughtneil (Derry) v St. Martin’s (Wexford)
Throw-in: 3.30pm
Referee: Liz Dempsey (Kilkenny)
Neither Derry nor Wexford are challenging for top-flight glory but such is the beauty of the AIB All-Ireland Club Championshipx that the power rankings at intercounty level do not always translate directly.
Indeed Slaughtneil, from a county operating in the Intermediate Championship, are firmly established as the club team to beat in the country, now just 60 minutes and change away from a third consecutive All-Ireland Senior title.
That would place them in hallowed company as the three-in-a-row has only been achieved five times. St. Paul’s of Kilkenny managed it twice (1968-80, 1987-89), with compatriots St. Lachtain’s (2004-06) and Pearses of Galway (2000-2002) others.
They would still have to return another year to match the remarkable Buffers Alley crew that triumphed in four consecutive seasons (1981-84) and actually won five of seven successive Final appearances around that period.
Six clubs have annexed the title in the 11 campaigns since St. Lachtain’s attained the significant landmark – there was no competition in 2010 with the format adopting the current schedule of finishing in March – and though there have been four multiple winners, only Slaughtneil have come this close to joining the game’s elite.
In truth, becoming the first team from Derry to reach the summit and only the second from Ulster, after Antrim’s O’Donovan Rossa in 2008, has already assured them of exalted status. That they need to dig deep so often to prevail only adds to the lore.
They have been without the considerable services of Clare McGrath and the McGuigans, Dervla and Denise, but the likes of Céat McEldowney and Clíona Mulholland have stepped in seamlessly.
As usual, they were given a stern examination by Loughgiel Shamrocks (Antrim) in the Ulster Final, before grinding out a four-point win over Ardrahan (Galway) in the All-Ireland Semi-Final. Many familiar faces shone, led by Shannon Graham, the Ní Chaiside siblings Aoife, Eilís and Bróna, Louise Dougan and former Offaly star Tina Hannon.
St. Martin’s have emerged from the shadow of Oulart-The Ballagh and made it count, ending the Leinster three-in-a-row aspirations of Kilkenny champions Thomastown, with a convincing seven-point triumph in the provincial decider.
Linda Bolger and Chloe Foxe scored the all-important second-half goals that day and they were exemplars too in another latter-period blitz that blew Inniscarra of Cork away in the All-Ireland Semi-Final. In particular, Foxe excelled, scoring nine of her team’s 11 points in a six-point win.
Noeleen Lambert and Ciara O’Connor were very good in a mean defence that boasts multiple All-Ireland winner and All-Star, Mags D’Arcy as goalkeeper and spiritual leader.
The Saints are managed by JJ Doyle, steward of Wexford’s three-in-a-row side at the beginning of the decade, and now a coach and selector with the Model County’s Senior hurlers (D’Arcy is also a member of the coaching set-up), having brought the Under 21s to an All-Ireland Final.
Slaughtneil have the same management in Antrim legend Dominic McKinley and Damien McEldowney that have overseen their odyssey to date since the death mid-way through that history-making breakthrough campaign of Thomas Cassidy, father of the Ní Chaiside sisters.
This won’t be lost on the line. Such is the talent on show that it won’t be lost at all. It will be won, most likely after a belter.
Senior Final Preview – Clonduff (Down) v Gailltír (Waterford)
Throw-in: 1.30pm
Referee: John McDonagh (Galway)
It isn’t significant but it is interesting to note that two new provinces are represented in this year’s Final, 12 months after Kildare’s Johnstownbridge got the better of Galway champions Athenry.
Ulster is the only province with two representatives at headquarters from the two Finals. The increasing competitiveness of the fare in the northern region has been evident in recent times.
Slaughtneil are the obvious role models at Senior level but Eglish, of Tyrone, only lost the Intermediate Final by a point last year and Eoghan Rua (Derry) were two-time victors at the start of the decade.
For a number of Clonduff players, it is a quick return after last September’s All-Ireland Intermediate Final, in which Down found Cork’s second string too strong.
Captain and nerveless freetaker Paula O’Hagan, Fionnuala Carr and her sister Sara-Louise are among the team’s leaders who will be looking to make up for that crushing disappointment and having dethroned Eglish in the Ulster Final – revenge for losing to them in the decider 12 months previously – they have a very good chance of doing so.
They showed a lot of composure in overturning a two-point deficit at the interval against Craughwell (Galway) in the All-Ireland Semi-Final. O’Hagan was deadly from placed balls throughout and Sara-Louise Carr illustrated her happy knack of scoring important goals with a crucial major at the end of the third quarter that moved her side into a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
It is a very positive period in the history of Waterford Camogie and the winners of the Déise’s Senior Championship have been at the hot end of the All-Ireland Intermediate Championship for a few years now. Lismore were All-Ireland champions in 2014 and are multiple provincial winners. Gailltír took Munster honours in the 2016-17 campaign once they were able to see off their rivals from the west in domestic fare. On that occasion, they were just a point shy of Eglish in the All-Ireland Semi-Final.
This time around, it was a Beth Carton-inspired De La Salle that had to be overcome in a rip-roaring Déise decider, the talented young Fitzgerald cousins Annie and Aoife scoring nine points and 1-3 respectively in the 1-17 to 2-13 triumph.
The East Waterford contingent had 10 points to spare against Éire Óg (Cork) in the Munster Final, where again, the Fitzgeralds were very impressive. It was their hugely experienced Waterford teammate Áine Lyng who really took proceedings by the scruff of the neck however and the trio managed 2-8 of their side’s 2-10 between them – and 2-6 of that came from play.
Bagging a second provincial title in three seasons rounded off the club’s 60th anniversary celebrations nicely and now the target is to begin 61 with a historic All-Ireland, having gotten the better of St. Rynagh’s in the Semi-Final. Clodagh Carrol struck the decisive blow with her team’s third goal, while defender Ciara Jackman and the long-serving Emma Roche were part of a resolute defensive effort.
The form of these sides this year and using a direct line through Eglish, suggests that there is very little between these sides and it would be no surprise for the verdict to be in doubt right to the last whistle.
Boxing: 2019 IABA Elites Finals night at National Stadium – Preview
You can watch the National boxing championships live on TG4, we preview the line up of fights.
This is an all important year for the former ‘amateur’ sport in most countries with Olympic qualifiers and World Championships on the horizon and for those in Europe, also the 2019 European games in Minsk.
The 2019 finals begin with a ring parade at 5.45pm followed by the first bout at 5.55pm.
The entire card will be broadcasted live by TG4 on ‘YouTube’ and TV from the Stadium. TV coverage begins at 8.45pm.
Chloe Fleck and Donna Barr get proceedings underway and defending super-heavyweight champion Dean Gardiner and Martin Keenan bring the curtain down on the 2019 edition of the flagship tournament of Irish boxing in the 75th and final bout of the Championships at the home of Irish boxing.
World Elite champion Kellie Harrington meets Jelena Jelic in an international bout in her first fight since winning gold at the World Elites in New Delhi last November.
Jelic, who ‘fought a gallant fight’ against Katie Taylor on her last visit to Ireland, on a Kanturk Boxing club programme held at the Mallow GAA Club, will be out to show that she is a much improved boxer since then and it should be a good work out for World Champion Harrington who has a walk over in the Irish Elites.
Highlights of the women’s programme include Michaela Walsh v Dervla Duffy, Christina Desmond v Grainne Walsh and Moira McElligott vs European U22 champion Amy Broadhurst whilst rising star Aoife O’Rourke takes on Chayanne O’Neill in the 75kg final – O’Rourke from the Castlerea club in Roscommon is certainly ‘one to watch’ for the future on the International circuit but O’Neill, who has moved up from 69kg,will provide worthy opposition.
Several ‘mouth-watering’ battles in the mean’s event as always despite the absence through injury of Joe Ward, Brendan Irvine and Kurt Walker to name but none more so than at 69kg when ‘battle commences’ between Oughterard’s Kieran Molloy and Our Lady of Lourdes Limerick hope Patrick O’Donovan. Watch out for fireworks too when Gabriel Dossen (75kg) takes on Emmett Brennan of the local Glasnevin Club. In the battle of the Super heavyweights (91+kg) once more it is Dean Gardiner (Clonmel) V Martin Keenan (Rathkeale). What a fight that should be to bring the evening’s programme to its conclusion.
Dominic O’Rourke, the President of the IABA, noted that there has been a few shocks so far – three male defending champions fell – and believes there could be a few more before the final bell tolls.
”The stage is set for what should be a very exciting night of boxing.
There’s a lot of very talented young boxers coming through and that is good to see and good for our sport. There have been a few surprises so far and I think we might see another few before the finals are done,” he said
A number of individuals will receive Services to Boxing Awards in celebration of their enduring contributions to Ireland’s most successful Olympic sport.
LIFFEY CRANE NATIONAL MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SENIOR ELITE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2019
NATIONAL STADIUM DUBLIN, SATURDAY 23rd FEBRUARY
Finals (5.45pm)
48kg – Light flyweight – Chloe Fleck (Canal) V Donna Barr (Iliies Golden Gloves)
49kg – Light flyweight Regan Buckley (St Teresa’s) V Sean Mari (Monkstown Dublin)
75kg – Middleweight – Aoife O’Rourke (Castlerea) V Cheyanne O’Neill (Athlone)
57kg – Featherweight – Michaela Walsh (Monkstown Antrim) V Dearbhla Duffy (Crumlin)
57kg – Featherweight – Christian Cekiso (Portlaoise) V Patryk Adamus (Drimnagh)
60kg – Lightweight – Dominic Bradley (Errigal) V David Oliver Joyce (Ballymun)
64kg – Light welterweight – Moira McElligott (St Michaels Athy) V Amy Broadhurst (Dealgan)
52kg – Flyweight – Evan Metcalf (Hyland BA) V Adam Hession (Monivea)
75kg – Middleweight Gabriel Dossen (Olympic Galway) V Emmett Brennan (Glasnevin)
80kg – Light heavyweight – Leona Houlihan (Crumlin) V Lisa Browne (Aglish)
91kg – Heavyweight – Anthony Browne (St Michaels Dublin) V Kenneth Okungbowa Athlone)
51kg – Flyweight – Carly McNaul (Holy Family Golden Gloves) V Niamh Early (Ryston)
63kg – Light welterweight – James McGivern (St Georges) V George Bates (St Marys Dublin)
69kg – Welterweight – Christina Desmond (Fr Horgan’s) V Grainne Walsh (Spartacus)
81kg – Light heavyweight – Thomas O’Toole (Celtic Eagles) V Tommy Hyde (Mayfield)
69kg – Welterweight – Kieran Molloy (Oughterard) V Patrick Donovan (Our Lady of Lourdes)
60kg – Lightweight – Kellie Harrington (St Mary’s) V Jelena Jelic (Serbia) (International bout)
91+kg – Super heavyweight – Dean Gardiner (Clonmel) V Martin Keenan (Rathkeale)
54kg – Bantamweight – Emma Flannery (Baldoyle) W/O
60kg – Lightweight – Kellie Harrington (St Mary’s) W/O
80+kg – Light heavyweight + – Nell Fox (Rathkeale) W/O
Clare v Kilkenny, Preview, Team News and live score updates
Claire HL Division 1 Group B round 4
Kilkenny v Clare, UPMC Nowlan Park, 2pm
Clare and Kilkenny meet on Sunday in this Allianz Hurling League clash which promises to be a fantastic game with superb players on both sides. On the opening weekend with a two point victory Wexford 1-16 beat Kilkenny 1-14
Clare had a decisive win at Cusack Park against Laois the final tally Clare 0-17 Laois 0-9. A great start for Clare
Click LoveGaa.ie for live updates
Team News:
Clare:
TBA
Kilkenny :
TBA
Verdict: Clare
Taekwondo: Jack Woolley & Conor Grassick ‘On the Road to Rio’ via Istanbul
Taekwondo: Jack Woolley & Conor Grassick ‘On the Road to Rio’ via Istanbul
3rd place today for @jackwoolley_tkd . We needed 2nd for Rio. Just Short. Very proud. #autoqualify2020
Ireland’s leading Taekwondo stars, Jack Woolley and Conor Grassick are this weekend competing in the European Continental Qualification tournament in Istanbul, Turkey.
The event offers 16 fighters places in the Rio Games later this year. Our best wishes to Jack and also to Conor in the challenges ahead.
Background to Istanbul:
The single-elimination system competition is taking place over January 16-17 at the WOW Istanbul Hotels and Convention Centre in the Turkish capital – which previously hosted the European Continental Qualification tournament prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Each European member national association can qualify a total of four athletes, two male and two female, for the Olympics at the event.
It is first of five WTF Continental Qualification Tournaments.
The Continental Qualification events qualify the second tranche of taekwondo athletes for the Olympics. Forty-eight elite fighters have already won quota places for Rio via ranking points accrued in previous tournaments, most notably, at the World Championships and at the top-level Grand Prix series, which finished last December.
Countries which have filled their full quotas via ranking cannot qualify via the Continental Qualification events unless they relinquish the previously obtained spots.
For this reason, Belgium, Germany and Russia cannot qualify any male athletes, as they have already filled those slots. Likewise, France, Great Britain, Croatia and Sweden cannot win any further female berths. Also, no country can win a berth in any weight category in which they already hold a spot.
After the Turkish battle, the WTF’s remaining Continental Unions -Africa, Pan America, Oceania and Asia – will be holding their respective Continental Qualification Tournaments in the first quarter of 2016. Each one offers 16 spots to the Rio Olympics, except for Oceania, which is allotted eight.
A total of 128 taekwondo athletes will compete in Rio. In addition to those berths won through ranking points and via the Continental Qualification events, there are eight additional Rio. Four host country places automatically go to Brazil, and four wild cards will be decided upon and distributed at the conclusion of the Continental Qualifications.
Now to the two Irish men who will be doing their utmost to qualify – Woolley and Grassick.
For South Dubliner Jack Woolley it is astonishing that he is even in Istanbul since he is still eligible to compete at Junior level and in fact his main aim is a place in Tokyo 2020.
He has already appeared here on SportsNews Ireland following previous excellent results at Junior level. As he is already at the venue in Istanbul, we contacted his Mum, Annette who is – quite naturally – very proud of her son’s achievements to date:
“Jack will still be only 17 when the Olympics in Rio take place, a schoolboy in a man’s sport. It’s the experience more than anything that will help him to deal with what we see as just the beginning of a big career, 2020 & 2024 being key goals.
Jack’s performance the past year is proof that he has what it takes and whatever happens on Saturday at the WOW Convention Centre will be a major part of that experience that will help him prepare mentally and tactically for what comes next”.
Taekwondo fans will already be aware that he recently took ‘The Echo’ Amateur Sports Star of the Year award and is also a Health and Well Being Ambassador for South County Dublin. The 16 yrs old is a 5th-year student in Holy Family Rathcoole.
RTE are currently filming him for a ‘Road to Rio’ documentary and have a crew in Turkey to film his performance. We wondered how he is coping financially, presumably, he has lots of sponsorships both through Sporting bodies and Privately. His Mum soon put us straight:
“He desperately needs BOTH funding and a sponsorship deal if he is to continue down the path he is going. All our personal family savings are exhausted after funding last year’s competition expenses, though I must praise the I.T.U and his club South Dublin Taekwondo who have assisted as best they could with the minimal funding they have”.
Or to put it into our own words, without a High-Performance grant from Sport Ireland (Irish Sports Council) or a ‘windfall’ sponsorship deal from the corporate sector), he is in danger of not having the chance to realise his potential and make Ireland proud. Now SportsNews Ireland feels quietly confident that even as a General Election is near, one of Paschal Donohoe or Michael Ring can take ‘time out’ from the campaign trail and have a quiet word with Sport Ireland’s Kieran Mulvey and or John Treacy and ask them to allocate funding.
True in an Olympic year, funds are limited and the emphasis is on Rio but funds should also be set aside to ‘look after’ Irish stars of the future who otherwise might progress no further in their chosen sport. Here we are not simply talking about Jack Woolley for whom we have no particular brief but for other keys, future stars too, be they from boxing, athletics, gold or any other Olympic sport.
Annette, herself a former freelance journalist makes this please to the funding authorities: “This is not the UFC, there is no financial reward for winning a title and with public and indeed the Sports Council believing that ‘all Martial Arts’ are the same it makes it difficult to (a) get the recognition he deserves and (b) source funding.
What about Jack’s hopes for Rio and his career to date?
According to our information, -58kg is the lowest weight category in the Olympics and so there is an amalgamation of -54kg (Jack’s division),58kg and 63kg fighters, all plying for this last chance to make it to RIO.
Jack hasn’t fought at this weight before as the Paris Tournament was cancelled due to the bombings.
He is currently ranked 14th in the world -54kg and 39th in the Olympic -58kg-official ‘ Hang-a Star stats.
In 2015 he entered 9 Senior G1/G2 ranking events reaching the podium 7 times.
Although still only a Junior fighter at the time his achievements include Gold at Russian and Moroccan Opens (plus title of most aggressive fighter at the Russian Open.
Additional accomplishments include Silver at the Spanish, Israeli, and Croatian Open, plus Bronze at the US & Polish Open championships.
He also placed 5th at the World Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia, winning 3 fights in a row and narrowly missing out on a medal position.
Indeed (no Irish TKD fighter has ever won even a preliminary round before or ranked so highly.
He is, without doubt, the most successful Irish WTF Taekwondo player to date and a ‘real’ medal hope for Tokyo 2024 and for the 2028 Olympics too.
He only fought twice at Junior level last year because his coach decided to concentrate on building his Senior status. he won silver at both the US Open and Junior European Championships.
We feel sure that among our readers are many Company Secretaries and/or Financial Controllers who would only be too happy to have ‘on their books’ (sponsorship wise) a future International star and one of Ireland’s brightest young sports stars. In many respect, he would be – like Katie Taylor – a great ‘role’ model not only for a Company but also for the
Sport Ireland organisation and Federation of Irish Sport in introducing more youngsters to this great (albeit financially unrewarding sport).
Like Katie, Jack’s achievements would more than likely attract many hundreds of young boys and girls to Taekwondo, including many who would otherwise never have an opportunity of taking up the sport. Annette Woolley rightly paid tribute to the I.T.U, to Sport Ireland and the South Dublin TKD Club. Now perhaps there is an opportunity for those Company Secretaries/Financial Controllers to get in “at the start”.
One way of doing this right now is to contribute to the funding ‘Olympic Challenge’ but remember that this is not just about Rio but longer-term too.
You don’t need to be a major International Trading Company to support this worthy cause and think of the great kudos for your Company if as we at SportsNews Ireland believe Ireland has a future top class International Sportsman in your midst.
Individuals too, of course, may help with donations, big or small.