Other Sport
Thornton the toast of Irish triathlon world after claiming European title
A Galway man cemented his position as the country’s top amateur triathlete after being crowned European Champion at the AG European Triathlon Championships in Turkey on Friday.
Salthill native Kevin Thornton (29) took gold in the 25-29 age bracket at the event in Alanya on Friday, coming home first in a field of 32 athletes in a time of 1.52:53, a time which saw him crowned overall champion. And there was success on the double for Ireland, as Cork’s Deirdre Casey took overall bronze in the women’s section.
“He’s delighted, naturally,” Kevin’s father, Brian, told Sentinel Sport yesterday. “He has competed over a range of distances, from short courses right up to Ironman, but he seems to have found his niche with the Olympic distance, which Friday’s event was,” he said.
Thornton – a cousin of long-distance athlete, Gary Thornton – is an amateur competitor, combining what is essentially a hobby with his full-time employment as a chartered physiotherapist with the National Rehabilitation Centre in Dun Laoghaire in Dublin, so Brian says that while his son is excelling at the Olympic distance, thoughts have not yet turned to competing in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
“That’s a long way off, he is an amateur whereas that would be for professional athletes. He trains twice a day – before and after work – and has his own coach, but that would be a big step up. What Friday’s win means is that he has now qualified for the World Championships which will be held in London on September 14 over the Olympic course used last year,” he explained.
Friday’s event began with an open water 1,500m swim, followed by a 40k cycle and a 10k run. He was second out of the water, having completed the distance in a time of 21 mins 32 secs, almost a minute and a half behind Britain’s John Wood.
However, he put in a blistering performance in the cycle, overhauling Wood to reach the second transition more than four minutes ahead of the field after completing the cycle in a time of 53mins 39 secs, and his run time of 37mins 9 secs saw him finish 3mins 12 secs ahead of another Briton, Alex Lawton, who ran a fast third leg to take silver, with Malta’s Keith Galea finishing third.
“He was delighted to win a medal of any colour, but the fact it was gold and the European title obviously made it extra special. He competed in a half-Ironman event in Barcelona last month, which would have been about twice the distance of Friday’s event.
“He was going nicely in that until he had a collision on the bike, which cost him about seven minutes, and he finished fourth, a minute behind the bronze medal finisher, and he feels himself he could have challenged for silver, so to turn it around and be crowned European champion is a great feeling,” Brian says.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.
CONNEMARA’S Luke O’Neill shot a final round 70 for a total of 11-under par to win the prestigious Allianz German Boys Open at Golf Club St Leon Rot over the weekend.
The Ballyconneely native, son of Connemara professional Hugh O’Neill, held off the challenge of Philipp Katich to win by a single shot. O’Neill held a two stroke lead going into the final day, after recording rounds of 69 and 66 over the opening two days before holding his nerve to claim victory. The Allianz Germany Boys Open is regarded as one of the top three boys golfing events in the world.
Katich, playing on his home course, pushed O’Neill all the way and moved to the top by the 12th hole, thanks to an excellent front nine performance, which included an eagle and two birdies.
Not panicked, O’Neill kept his composure and that ultimately proved to be the catalyst for his victory. The 13th and 14th proved disastrous for Katich. The German, who recently won French Boys Open, had a bogey on the 13th, before finding water on the 14th and eventually posting a triple bogey 7. O’Neill, meanwhile, birdied 14.
Another German, Felix Krammer, entered the conversation for victory as he sensationally struck a seven-iron shot for a hole-in-one at the par-3 13th.
Read full report in this week’s Tribune Sport.
GALWAY ace Martin Mulkerrins will lead the Irish team at the 2018 World Handball Championships which are starting this week in Minnesota.
And the current national senior champion is joined on the Irish team by fellow Galwegian, Niamh Heffernan from Claregalway, in a total playing party of 13.
Moycullen’s Mulkerrins will be competing in the Men’s Open event while Heffernan should be a strong contender for the Girls 17U World title.
Multi-talented Heffernan, who also plays camogie at County level, previously took home gold medals from Calgary, Canada in 2015. A rising star of the game, it’s little wonder that she qualified for Team Ireland.
Another Galway member is Frances Curran, Michael Breathnach’s, who is traveling Stateside as Team Ireland Liaison Officer.
According to Mulkerrins, this year’s Men’s Open singles field at the World Handball Championships is so strong that it will be a case of kill or be killed!
Now aged 25, he took gold at the 2009, 2012 and 2015 Worlds as a juvenile, and captured his maiden All-Ireland senior singles title back in March. This time around he will be competing against the USA professional players in his bid for the World glory.
The blue riband Open Singles draw is stacked with quality and, says Mulkerrins, the player who can marry consistency with aggressive shot-making will be the one crowned champion.
“I would consider myself an offensive player, I would go for the kill if it’s a 50-50 call. “I think especially in tournaments like this, with a round of 32 and an extremely tough round of 16, you don’t want to be in that court any longer than you have to.
“With the speed of the American courts and their ball, I don’t think too many players will be adopting a defensive style. I see it as a tournament where we are going to see a lot of low, hard power play and players looking to finish games quickly,” he said.
See full coverage in Tribune Sport.
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GALWAY’S senior camogie team will be looking to bounce back from their final round group defeat to Kilkenny when they face Dublin in a tricky All-Ireland quarter-final assignment at Pairc Uí Chaoimh, Cork on Saturday evening (7:15pm).
Following victories over Clare, Waterford and Limerick, Galway had looked to seize the automatic semi-final berth against Kilkenny last day out and for three quarters of that contest they were certainly in a good place to achieve this.
Indeed, they had the Cats in all sorts of bother early on with Ailish O’Reilly, in particular, looking dangerous up front. However, with Kilkenny using sweeper Anne Dalton to good effect and Galway struggling to by-pass this defensive mechanism, the National League champions swung the tie in their favour to take the win on a 1-17 to 0-13 scoreline.
While the margin of defeat will have frustrated manager Cathal Murray, there were still enough positives in the performance to give rise for optimism ahead of this weekend’s knockout game against Dublin. “There was plenty of positives but we were just disappointed with the last 20 minutes to be honest with you,” says Murray.
“We kind of threw in the towel a small bit but we now have to look for a response against Dublin, who won’t be bad. So, all round, we need to improve. There is not just one area really but we do need to get a performance to get ourselves back on the road again. Dublin, though, will be no pushovers.”
Unfortunately, Galway have been hit with a setback with the news that Oranmore/Maree full-forward and goal threat Niamh Hanniffy looks set to miss the rest of the campaign with a knee-ligament injury. “Niamh is a massive loss to us,” confirms Murray. “It is disappointing in fairness.
“We also have a few more injured at the moment. Sarah Dervan, Becky Hennelly and Caitriona Cormican are all carrying knocks. Look, they will probably be okay but, at the moment (early in the week), they are unable to train.”
Injuries aside, it is unlikely Galway will digress too far from the side which did lose to Kilkenny. Sarah Healy will start between the posts with captain Dervan, Tara Kenny, Lorraine Ryan and Heather Cooney backboning the Tribeswomen’s defence.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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