Party time as club honours world-beater
CUCHULAINN Archers club member John Keenan was the subject of a special ‘welcome home’ celebration last Wednesday after his impressive exploits on the World stage in recent months.
Plans were laid and John’s wife Gay was drafted in to ensure that her husband would arrive late at the club session in Ardee, giving members time to assemble with flags and posters.
After a very warm and heartfelt welcome, he was ushered into the hall where he walked through an arch of bows to the applause of the waiting archers and a party ensued, complete with a cake decorated with his photo.
Keenan travelled to the World Masters Championships in Lausanne in Switzerland last month and the defending European Masters champion took home two gold medals (one in the Field competition and the other in the 720 Outdoor) and one bronze.
Both Keenan and clubmate Éamonn Rogers then competed in the Irish National Championships which took place last Sunday week in Cavan. In fact, Rogers drove straight from the ferry, arriving in Cavan in time to compete!
There, in quite poor conditions, they were joined by several other club members. Eamonn Rogers, tired though he was, took home the bronze medal in the individual competition and the bronze in the Mixed Doubles competition with Deirdre Rogers, while club members Brendan Forde and Michelle Brohan took silver in the Recurve Mixed Doubles after a thrilling one-arrow shoot-off decided the final placing.
Éamonn Rogers had also qualified to represent Ireland in the Hyundai World Cup, Berlin, back in July and shot a PB in the qualifiers. Later, with teammates Daniel Foley and Mark Sharvin (both from Dublin Archers) he competed in the team event. There, despite Éamonn having to shoot through the pain of a dislocated knee, the team shot an Irish record (to be confirmed).
Éamonn hit the road again to travel to the European Outdoor Championships in Legnica, Poland, recently where he was best of the Irish.