World Handball Championships

WORLD HANDBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Last weekend saw the round up of the 2015 Handball World Championships in Calgary Canada. By now all the players are home and the jet-lag and exhaustion are fading from memory but the memory of competing with the worlds elite at Handball’s premier tri-annual event will never fade. The championships were held at a number of venues across Calgary city with the main hub being the University of Calgary. The University has an enormous state of the art sport complex boasting an Olympic size swimming pool an Olympic speed skating ring,two Ice-Hockey rings, two professional basketball arenas and a gym with enough weights to sink the Titanic but from the 11th to 21st August the corridors and food halls were swelled with a thousand of the worlds best Handballers.

Among that hoard were ten of Monaghan’s finest. The Monaghan handballers had mixed success but five of the ten brought home medals which is quite a feat considering 25 nations sent their best. Ireland’s juvenile coaching regime shone brightly with Irish juveniles dominating almost all juvenile grades. Monaghan’s Sean Callan won a silver medal in the 11 & u doubles with his partner Kyle Jordan from Killkenny. They lost the final to Fiachra O Duill and Mickey Kelly, a strong combination from Armagh and Galway. However they made up for it in when they won Gold in the 40×20(4wall) tournament. Sean showed tremendous grit and talent for such a young athlete on the big stage. Eoghan Mc Ginnity hit form taking gold in the 13&u. Eoghan defeated Jack Doyle from Killkenny in the final. Eoghan also took silver in the one-wall losing to Jason O Toole from Galway in the final. His semi-final against Cahir Monroe from Tyrone was one of the best matches of the event and it was here that Eoghan showed his true ability. Louise Mc Ginnity also took silver in the one-wall doubles with her partner Coalisa Ni Dhuill from Armagh. Louise is following in her brothers footsteps and fast becoming a star in her own right.

Monaghan’s brightest star Darren Doherty brought home two silvers in the 19&u singles and 19&u one-wall singles. Darren defeated opponents from Canada,the USA and Spain only to meet Tyrone’ s Jonny Woods in the final of both 40×20 and one-wall. Although the experts would make Darren favourite in these showdowns, Jonny came out on top in both denying Darren his gold medal.

Conor Mc Donnell took gold in the golden masters division. In the final,Conor defeated George Miller from Mayo decisively in two straight games. Conor and his partner Paul Cassidy were expected to do well in the doubles but didn’t manage to hit form and lost in the first round to a strong Canadian duo. Martin Mc Entee was unfortunate to come up against Steven Dykes from USA in his first round and was no match for the big American. In the doubles, Martin with his partner Pete Larkin won their first round against the American team of John Larson and Craig Carson but were beaten in the next round by Canadian duo Dan Murphy and Mark Broverman. Pete won his first round singles against the American Brian Coonce but lost in the next round to the talented Nevill Farelley from Dublin. Paul Cassidy defeated the best Canada and America could throw at him in the early rounds only to come up against his doubles partner Conor Mc Donnell in the semi-final. Paul lost out on this occasion but was delighted to see Conor go on and take the gold. Gavin Coyle, another of Monaghan’s rising stars was unable to reach his potential this time probably due to his pre-event training being hampered by a back injury. Even though not at his best Gavin defeated Patrick Murphy from Mayo in the first round and then defeated Evan Murphy from Limerick but lost to Danial Kavanagh from Wexford in the quarter-final. Conor O Gorman from Carrick was narrowly defeated in the first round in a close tie-breaker by Thomas Donegan from Limerick. In the doubles Conor and his partner John Horgan from Cork were beaten by Louis Rasik and Malachy Flisch from Alaska.

Each and every one of these Monaghan athletes ably represented their county with honour,courage and sportsmanship on the biggest stage there is in World Handball.

Congratulations to Sean,Eoghan, Louise, Gavin, Darren, Conor, Paul, Conor, Martin and Pete.