Brackey On Top Of The “Worlds”

Wednesday 24.10.2012

Club

Maeve McElduff and Johnny Woods claimed gold medals for Brackey handball club on the final day of the 2012 world handball championships in the Citywest hotel in Dublin.

Maeve teamed up with Galway star Ciana ni Churraoin to win the girls under-19 one wall doubles title on Sunday, beating world under-23 champion Catriona Casey and her partner Aoife McCarthy, while Johnny, who had earlier enjoyed a good run in the 40×20 singles, partnered Armagh’s Conall McCavitt to success in the boys under-17 one wall doubles championship.

Overall the 2012 world handball championships proved fruitful for Brackey as the club also captured six silver medals over the eleven days.

Maeve McElduff added to her doubles gold medal with a silver medal in the under17 one wall singles, which was secured with a brilliant win over Limerick’s Martina McMahon in the semi-final. She eventually lost to her doubles partner in the singles decider, but with two medals home with her the championships were a big success for Maeve.

Niall Kerr was another Brackey player who returned home on Sunday with two medals from the world championships. Niall partnered Tom Sheridan from Meath in both finals, losing to Ducksy Walsh and Tommy Hynes in the 40×20 masters final and to a very strong American pair in the one wall masters decider. Niall also teamed up with Shane O’Neill in the 40×20 Mens A doubles, reaching the quarter-final stage, while Shane was an unlucky first round loser against American Cesar Sala in the mens open singles.

Barry Devlin came through a strong field in great style to reach the Mens B 40×20 singles final, claiming a silver medal as a result, before eventually losing to Cork’s Tadgh Carroll in the decider, his sixth outing in a stiff competition.

And Jack Campbell survived a number of strong challenges as he made his way though to the boys under-15 one wall singles final, before eventually losing to Clare’s Fergal Coughlan.

Another young Brackey star, Sean Kerr, who has enjoyed a magnificent year on the national stage, sustained an injury and had to withdraw from the remainder of the world championships. His cousin Conor McElduff put up a great effort in the under-19 one-wall singles and came through a couple of big tests before eventually bowing out at the semi-final stage following a high quality clash with the eventual winner, American Michael Zhou.

Gabhainn McCrystal and Pol Clarke also put in a good effort in the under17 doubles in both codes before losing narrowly in their 40×20 semi-final and again in their one wall quarter-final, while Ruairi Kelly put up a bold show at the top level in both codes despite only coming back recently from a long injury lay-off.

Ruairi pushed fancied American Sean Lenning all the way in his mens open 40×20 singles match, going down 11-8 in the tiebreaker, and also pushed another fancied American strongly in the mens open one wall singles event.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth McGarvey and Emer Kerr performed really well in the girls under-11 doubles, reaching the 40×20 semi-finals, and Eamon McCrory, Mark McCartan, Tony McElduff and Michelle Warren all performed with a lot of credit in the one wall singles competitions.

Overall the world championships were a great success for the Brackey club with eight medals to show for their efforts.