GMIT Sports
GMIT@Castlebar Sports News 27 Jan 2004
By Nigel Jennings
27, Jan 2004 - 15:41

After an extended lay off due to the Christmas break, followed by exams, the sporting bodies of the college are starting to brush off the cobwebs and sporting activity will break out on all fronts in the coming weeks. After the shadow boxing of the league stages, challenges and friendly events, the coming two months will see the action coming thick and heavy with Play-offs, championships and Intervarsity events up for decision.

First out of the blocks was the Kendo championships decided in The Marydyke Arena U.C.C. the weekend before last. This Martial art has received a lot of publicity with the release of the movie “The Last Samurai”. Irelands leading exponent of this art is Warren Rooney. Currently completing his final year Warren has been national champion for the last three years.

Hoping to make it four in a row before departing for Japan on graduation, to further his training, it was obvious from the outset that he was going to have his work cut out. His was the scalp most sought after and the pressure eventually told, as he was eliminated just prior to the final. He did not leave empty handed as he joined U.C.C. team and led them to team gold. Having represented the college so well on the national stage as well as representing Ireland at European and world championships, he still managed the time to train beginners in the college and give of his time and has been a great advertisement for the sport. Everyone at the college wishes him well on the next stage of his journey to Japan.

The Mardyke Arena was also the venue last weekend for the Women’s indoor soccer intervarsities. Following on last year’s excellent performance the girls again did themselves proud. Being placed in the toughest qualifying group, (Inchicore ended up as overall runners up, while University of Limerick were plate runners up), they were not likely to emulate last years play-off heroics. There was still plenty of fine football and victories over Trinity College and NUI Maynooth had the girls in fine and confident mood as they fought their way to the semi-finals. You don’t count on meeting teams of the ability of U.C.D. in the plate competition and they certainly showed their quality.

It was a great days work and apart from lead scorers Louise Mulready and Maeve Murphy and the incredible performance in goal of Evelyn Bonar the entire squad of Aishling Ni Griofa, Fiona Costello, Aishling Dowling, Sarah O’Regan and Ciara Burke had to be at their very best as they all played a major role at various stages throughout what was a grueling day. Well done on a great days work. 

Championship is the buzzword in GAA circles with the Trench (Football) and Fergal Maher (Hurling) Cups beginning in early February. Both teams are in great form after differing league campaign s. Billy McNicholas will claim he was keeping the powder dry during an indifferent league run. Training has been stepped up since the new-year and the pre-breakfast training which raised some eyebrows on its introduction is again serving the lads well. A challenge with Sligo I.T. will be the last stage in the preparation before the trip to Carlow on February the 4^th.

The hurler’s league campaign was considerably more impressive and they have a tough assignment against I.T. Tralee in the hope of reaching the league semi-finals, as well as fine-tuning their performance For the Maher Cup tie with Marino College. Kevin O’Connor is putting the lads through their paces and there is no doubt they will be the best prepared bunch of hurlers to take the field since the All-Ireland winning team of 2000

The Men’s soccer team will be at work in Athlone on Wednesday in the ISSA indoor event as they prepare for their entry to the CFAI cup in round two, while the Rugby team start the round of 10-a-side blitzes, which saw them claim runner –up spot last year, with a trip to Dublin hopefully this year they can go one step further.

We may be in an arctic grip at the moment but the early morning training sessions and muddy field of championships first round are always an indicator that evenings are lengthening and fine spring days are just around the corner. And when that time comes the honours will have been allocated. It seems a long way off now on both fronts but come the end of March lets hope the sun is shining in every sense and the dark day’s will all have been worth it.