HIGH PERFORMANCE An Outstanding Year for High Performance Athletes
2009 was a tremendous year for high performance sport in Ireland.The high level and consistency across a number of sports has provided great excitement and with the emergence of a generation of talented young athletes in several sports, there is great hope for the future.
A brief summary of highlights include:
| Athletics: Athletics celebrated their most successful World Championships to date with Olive Loughnane securing Silver in the 20k walk, and final qualification achieved by Derval O'Rourke (4th) and David Gillick (6th). The emergence of a number of excellent juniors including Ciara Mageean (silver World Junior) and David McCarthy,bronze 5000 meters European under 23, continued the encouraging year for athletics. | |
| Boxing: Boxing enjoyed another outstanding year with Katie Taylor winning her 4th European Championship. John Joe Nevin won a Bronze medal at the World Championships in Milan and the Irish team won an amazing 9 medals including 3 gold at the EU championships, where they also recieved the Best Nation award. Another notable success at junior level was Joseph Ward (Westmeath) (70kg) winning gold at World Juniors in Armenia | |
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Sailing: At World Level Irish sailors won 2 gold and 2 silver in 2009.Philip Doran won the Under 17 World Laser Championships in Japan in August with Oliver Loughheed in 2nd place. Finn Lynch won silver at the Topper World Championships in Austria in July. Annalise Murphy finished 8th in the senior World Laser Radial Championships in Japan in August, the best Irish performance at a Olympic class world championships for 5 years. |
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Swimming: Grainne Murphy secured 3 gold medals and 1 bronze at European Juniors in Prague in July, the most successful individual swimmer at the Championships. A series of excellent performances at World Championship in Rome in July made it the best senior team performance for many years. Darragh McDonald repeated his medal success from the Paralympic Games with a silver at the European Championships in Iceland in October in the 400 meter freestyle (S6) . |
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Paralympics: Catherine Walsh & Caroline Ryan won a Silvermedal at World Track Championships (Paralympic) Ireland's first ever track medal in cycling and first tangible outcome from Ireland's emerging track cycling programme. In athletics, Jason Smyth, qualified for European Championships next year and Michael McKillop will lead the Irish junior team at European Cross Country in Dublin. |
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Cricket: Ireland underlined their consistent quality by winning the qualifying tournament for the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa in April. They also continued their quest for test match status. |
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| Cycling: Philip Deignan was the first Irish cyclist since Stephen Roche in 1992 to win a stage on a major tour, winning stage 18 and finishing 9th overall. National road race champion Nicolas Roche finished 23rd overall in the Tour de France. | |
| Equestrian: (Show Jumping) Cameron Hanly was 4th in the European Championships. In addtion the Irish team performed well throughout the Meydan Series (Formerly Super League) Nations Cup winning in Falsterbo Sweden. Denis Lynch also won the Grand Prix at Aachen, Germany and Billy Twomey won the Grand Prix at St. Gallen, Switzerland. Kelli Allen (16) won the gold medal at the European Pony Show Jumping Championships where the Irish team took Silver. (Eventing) Patricia Ryan won the Tattersalls World Cup Qualifier and Joseph O' Brien won the bronze medal at the European Pony Eventing Championships in Moorsele Belgium. |
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| Golf: Outstanding year for Rory McIlroy finishing 2nd in European Tour Order of Merit (Race to Dubai). Shane Lowry won the Irish Open as an amateur and has joined the ranks of Ireland's tour professionals. The various Irish amateur teams performed with distinction throughout 2009 with the highlight being the Irish Girls Team who were crowned European Champions in Finland in July. This victory was among the many honours won by the 14 year old Cavan twins Leona and Lisa Maguire who have been selected in the GB & Ireland team to play the USA in the Curtis Cup in Massachusetts in June 2010. Simon Thornton, a Team Ireland Golf Trust recipient, achieved a European Tour Card for the very first time, while newly turned professional Niall Kearney, received a Challenge Tour category for 2010 . | |
| Motorsport: Ireland won the A1GP series in 2009 with Adam Carroll outstanding throughout the series. In rallying Keith Cronin, as the 2009 British Rally Champion, and Kris Meeke won the 2009 Intercontinental Really Championship.Peter Dempsey finished second in the prestigious Star Mazda Motor Racing Series in the US while Kyle Lafferty finished second in the 2009 World Supersport Series which included 6 race wins for Honda. | |