DEAF SPORTS Water Polo deaflympics

08 Sep 2009


Vincent McArdle made the first move in trying to land the first medal for Ireland this morning. He took part in the heat for 100m Butterfly but came 8th in the race and the time set was not enough to send him to the final scheduled to take place in the evening. However, he has landed a new personal best of 1.02.82 minutes so he was well pleased.

The Water Polo players joined him at the Swimming Plaza at 11am. The excitement surrounding the team was really obvious as they were eager to make their mark in the Irish first ever Deaflympics Water Polo match! Along came 12.30pm when they were allowed to warm up before the match against Italy at 1.30pm. We are wary of the Italians as we know little of them and the last time we played against them was back in 2002 during the European Championships in Sheffield. Senior members of the team have recognised some of the Italians.

Paul Ryder, the Irish Captain, led the team to the line up before the crowd to exchange the pennants and shook hands of the opponents. The action was filmed which has included the full first quarter. The first 7 in the team consists of the following players:

  • Colm Keogh (gk)
  • Alan Turner
  • Paul Ryder (C)
  • Patrick Maher
  • Roy Keating
  • Eoin Nolan
  • Frank Grace

 

Subs

  • Philip Culhane
  • Liam Moloney
  • Mark Patchell
  • Wesley Nolan
  • Declan Kearney
  • Vincent McArdle


The first 5 minutes was rather tense as neither of the teams has scored by then but the first goal finally came afterwards courtesy of Nolan. It has meant that Eoin Nolan now has the distinction of becoming the first ever Water Polo goal scorer in the Deaflympics and it was captured on film. First quarter ended with 1-0 to the Irish.

Local school children made up the most of the spectators seating area and they were cheering the Irish on in our match. As they have made an effort to bring large Irish flags and banners, this gave the team an extra incentive to win. They set about in creating more goals in the second quarter. Italy seized opportunities from a long distance and decided to test the goalkeeper on various occasions. This has resulted in them scoring three goals whereas Ireland could only manage an extra goal coming from Roy Keating, the youngster. Half time score: 3-2 to Italy.

Dave the coach gave a motivational speech to spur the players on during the break and it made a significant difference with the Irish scoring two further goals courtesy of Keating and Nolan but the Italians further punished the Irish with 3 goals. There was a particular occasion where Ryder came close with a one to one chance but scored wide over the bar. It could be seen nerves have played a big part in the game. Third quarter ended with the score of 6-4 to the Italians.

Nolan came close a few times but could not get through and Frank Grace attempted to score from a long range three times but each of the shots could not get through the Italian Goalie.

Each of them could only contribute an additional goal apiece in the final quarter with the Irish goal coming from Nolan once more. Therefore the matched ended with an Italian victory over the Irish 7-5. Disappointment was an emotion one could attribute to the players after the match. However, first match tends to be tricky and we are sure to bounce back and play even better tomorrow. The match tomorrow will be against the current European Champion, Hungary! They won 27-6 against the Americans. At this rate it seems the American will end up with a wooden spoon since they only have one sub available throughout the matches.

From 5pm onwards, finals of the swimming events featured in the morning took place and this was rather interesting as 7 occasions have seen new world records. The controversial swim suits have played a huge part in the world records getting smashed. Both of our swimmers have suits and hopefully this will contribute a lot in our forthcoming swimming events this week.

Sean Herlihy, National Director for Water Polo, said; 'The match was indeed very close but hopefully we will learn from our mistakes today and improvise in tomorrow's match. However, the team is highly motivated and is hungry for a first win!'

Tomorrow will see Vincent competing in his better event; the 400m Freestyle race. Also there will be another opportunity win the first Irish medal by Wayne Reid tomorrow (in Athletics 10,000m).