It has been a hugely successful week for Tyrone students in the Ulster colleges handball championships, with two titles picked up on Wednesday and more guaranteed next Thirsday when the remaining provincial finals are staged..
In the girls competitions, which were played to a finish in Truagh on Wednesday, there were Ulster titles for Dean Maguirc College, Carrickmore, and Loreto Convent Omagh. Aoife Kelly and Elise McCrory claimed the under-15 doubles title for the ‘Dean’ and Maeve McElduff captured the senior singles title for Loreto Convent, who also took the runners-up prize in the under-13 doubles courtesy of Elizabeth McGarvey and Emer Kerr. St Ciaran’s Ballygawley also featured in one of the girls finals as Michaela McCartan put up a great show against St Mary’s Lurgan’s world champion Dearbhla Coleman.
The boys Ulster finals are all scheduled for Truagh next Thursday (31st January) following a big day of action at Kingscourt and Bawn on Wednesday. And Tyrone will be very strongly represented, with as many as five different colleges from the county vying for provincial glory.
Dean Maguirc will feature in finals at under-13 singles (Cormac Munroe), under-13 doubles (Ronan Curran & Ciaran Cuddy), under-15 singles (Sean Kerr), under-17 singles (Patrick McCrory) and under-19 doubles (Sean Loughran & Ruairi Begley). Omagh CBS have finals to look forward to at under-13 doubles (Antoin Fox & Lorcan McBride), under-15 doubles (Pauric Mullan & Ronan McKay) and under-17 doubles (Niall Allison & Matthew McCartan).
St Ciaran’s Ballygawley will be hoping for success in the under-15 and under-17 singles finals, courtesy of Jack Campbell and Johnny Woods, with Omagh College of Further Education pinning their hopes on Gabhainn McCrystal in the under-17 singles decider. There will be a few all-Tyrone clashes next Thursday in an attractive finals programme, which promises to be a great advertisement for colleges handball.
Meanwhile, Tyrone’s gold and silver medalists from the memorable world handball championships in October were recognised at a special function hosted by the Ulster handball council in Kelly’s Inn on Friday night.
Niall Allison, Johnny Woods, Maeve McElduff, Lorcan McBride, Antoin Fox, Dara Curran and Ciara Mullan were the seven players who famously brought gold medals back to the county three months ago, with some also claiming silver medals. And Caolan Daly, Ciaran Curran, Barry Devlin, Niall Kerr, Patrick McCrory, Jack Campbell, Aoife Kelly, Elise McCrory, Cormac Munroe and Darragh Canavan all added to the county’s impressive medal haul with silvers.
Tyrone’s 17 medal winners were among a total of 19 gold medalists and 23 silver medalists from across Ulster who were honoured on Frida night.
By tyronepro
Sat 26th Jan
