Local sports fans pinning their hopes on Darver Star
AS the Coronavirus outbreak worsens, Governments across the world, including our own, have been meeting with international and national sporting bodies to discuss the possibility of banning mass sports gatherings, postponing major sporting events or staging them behind closed doors.
Italy, the country with the most confirmed cases outside China, has ordered all major sporting events throughout the country to be played without fans for a one-month period in a bid to curb the spread of the disease.
The IRFU, acting on advice from the Department of Health and Minister Simon Harris, had no hesitation in cancelling last Saturday’s Six Nations clash with Italy in Dublin, given the need to protect public health.
Both the Scotland/France and England/Wales games, however, went ahead as planned, although England’s final game against the Italians next weekend in Rome was postponed and Ireland’s match in Paris is now also a casualty.
There is growing expectation that Premier League matches in England will shortly be staged behind closed doors, possibly as soon as next week, depending on government advice.
Pre-match handshakes between both teams and officials have already been outlawed as Premier League officials step up preventative measures.
UEFA have already issued guidelines regarding the playing of some Champions and Europa League last-16 matches without any spectators, including Italian teams Atalanta and Inter Milan.
There are also fears about the Euro 2020 tournament which is due to get under way in less than 100 days’ time, with fixtures to be played across 12 European cities including four ties at the
Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
The 2020 Olympics are due to take in place in Tokyo from July 24th to August 9th. The postponement or cancellation of the world’s greatest sporting event would be unprecedented in peacetime (the games were previously cancelled because of WW1 and WW2 in 1916, 1940 and 1944). Given Japan’s proximity to China there are inevitable mounting concerns.
Last week’s Tokyo Marathon went ahead but was restricted to just 200 elite athletes. All other major sporting events have been cancelled and Japan’s schools and colleges remain closed.
Closer to home, the four-day Cheltenham Festival is set to go ahead as planned tomorrow (Tuesday), with thousands of Irish racegoers making their annual pilgrimage to the Cotswolds.
Local favourite Darver Star goes off in the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday and there is real optimism around the North East that the ever-improving Gavin Cromwell-trained horse will do well.
Many local punters have benefited significantly from Darver Star’s magnificent run of form over the last 12 months and they will hope to see the strong stayer rocketing home like he did in Leopardstown last time out.
There is a real GAA connection with the owners. Sean Fanning was team sponsor of Stabannon Parnells during their great run in the 1990s and Pat Cluskey and Simon Fagan are both staunch members of the St Joseph’s GAA club.
I bumped into Simon recently at a Cheltenham preview night in the Carnbeg Hotel where all of the expert panel gave him every chance of winning.
Remarkably, Darver Star is Simon’s first horse and this will be his first visit to the festival. It’d be a great boost for sports fans in the county to see the three lads and Louth’s red and white colours in the winners’ enclosure on Tuesday afternoon. His current odds are 12/1.
The dreaded Coronavirus brings back memories of the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in March 2001 after sheep were found to be infected on the Cooley Mountains.
I remember the mass culling of animals, exclusion zones, long delays at checkpoints and disinfectant mats at every entrance.
There followed a lockdown of all sporting venues across the county for several months and the cancellation of all local sporting fixtures.
I was part of the late Paddy Clarke’s Louth panel at the time, and following the outbreak we were forced to cancel collective training and forfeit our final two National League games against
Tyrone and Dublin.
That Division 1 campaign had got off to a great start the previous October when we beat the reigning All-Ireland champions Kerry below in the Kingdom.
After some appeals we were offered the chance to avoid relegation with a winner-takes-all game in Enniskillen the following October against Donegal who’d finished third from bottom in Division 1.
Paddy Carr had been installed as new Louth manager just a couple of weeks earlier and unfortunately we lost out, suffering relegation to Division 2.
With little or no preparation we were also beaten in the first round of the Leinster Championship by Longford in Navan at the beginning of May but recovered somewhat to get a reasonable run in the newly introduced Qualifiers, beating Tipperary and Offaly before succumbing to Westmeath in round three.