Ual awards bash
States on a scholarship. It’s great to be able to watch them doing what they love.’
Tennis hotshot Rachel Eagleton won two medals at the World Transplant Games, but she was very eager to stress how much of a team effort it was.
‘Some of the team are tonight and the bond is just amazing. There are a lot people standing behind you to get you there, like your coach and your family. There’s a whole team behind you and you couldn’t do it without them.’
And the next target? ‘Retain my title! The next world games are in Houston in 2021, so that’s the next big goal and this year the Europeans are in Dublin so it’s great to have that on home soil.’
Despite winning the Junior Support Championship, raod racer Vinny Brennan ranked his runners up spot in the Supertwin.
‘I wanted to have a go at the Junior Support and the Supertwin was just another spin out so to finish second in the championship in that was more of an achievement for me than winning the Junior Support.
‘Not content with running one road racing bike in 2020, Vinny Brennan plans to make the step up to a 750 in the Senior Support Championship and if there’s any potential sponsors out there, he’s all ears.
‘I’m not looking forward to that. A main sponsor would be a dream. One bike is expensive to run, so I’m nervous enough about that.’
But he’s going to get too stressed about it. ‘Throw the leg over it and send it on, that’s my motto,’ he quipped top plenty of applause and laughter.
Having qualified for the PDC World Championships, Keane Barry really made a name for himself in 2019 and almost started 2020 by turning professional. He narrowly missed out at Qualifying School, but knows he has time on his side.
‘It was gut-wrenching to lose out in the last game, but I probably went there thinking it was a bit to early to turn professional and I’ve loads of time. I’m just enjoying my darts for as long as I can.’
It was testament to just how good a season goalkeeper Monica McGuirk enjoyed with Meath that she pipped the Dublin and Galway number 1s to a coveted All-Star award, but she insists football is a team effort.
‘It was a great year for the whole team, we got to three finals. We were delighted to win the league final and the Leinster and All-Ireland finals were disappointing, but hopefully on to bigger and better things this season. I was in awe of being there on All-Star night. I was against the Dublin and Galway ‘keepers and they both played in the senior All-Ireland final, so it was a bit of a shock.’
Perched on the Meath border Mattock Rangers also enjoyed a stellar 2019 and very nearly made it to Croke Park last month. December nominee David Reid was once again their chief marksman and he admitted that it was a special year.
‘It was terrific. If you said at this time last year we’d get to an All-Ireland semi-final we’d have taken it. Obviously when you’re one game away from Croke Park you’d love to go the extra step, but we’ve no complaints, we were beaten on the day by the better team.
‘If there was an easy formula for winning everybody would do it. In the Louth final we didn’t kick a wide over the hour and in the Leinster final we got a run on them in the second-half, I suppose when everyone rows in together sometimes the breaking ball goes your way.’
And the former Louth star garnered one of the biggest cheers of the night when he added: ‘This occasion is great to see because we need a few good-news stories in this town at the moment.’
Last but definitely not least was February winner Ciaran McGroggan - fresh from helping Drogheda Wolves to reach the National Intermediate Basketball Cup.
They were subsequently knocked out in the semi-finals at 6pm on the evening of the awards, so to say Ciaran did well to make the main course is an understatement. ‘We won our quarter-final this morning, but then we were playing Leixlip in the semi-final this evening and they got revenge on us from last year.
‘We’re competing in five different competitions and this is one off the list, but we’re still in the running for the four others.’