The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
A member of the Irish amputee football association, Diarmuid has won a place on one of two teams of four representing the Irish association that will compete against each other in search of a new world record.
The Irish association has entered two teams in the Barrington’s Hospital Great Limerick run marathon relay. Each team will run 6.5 miles and they will be doing it on a set of crutches and on one leg without the use of their prosthetic limb.
“There was a lot of competition within the football team to even make it into the two relay teams with each member having to complete a 10k run in under 1 hour 30 minutes to be considered for the team. The reason for taking on the challenge is to highlight the game of amputee football proving to people we are not just amputees but amputee athletes,” according to Simon Baker who is chairman of the Irish association.
Twenty-four-year-old Diarmuid is looking forward to the Limerick run and he believes that the participation of the Irish amputee athletes will highlight that amputees can participate in sporting events.
“I joined the association over a year a go and I have been playing on the soccer team. We were at a tournament in Poland recent and did well,” he told The Clare Champion this week.
“Six and a half years ago I had my leg amputated after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma,” explained David.
He said he met up with Simon Baker through a neighbour and “I started going to training which has led to this. We train in Dublin on Saturdays and then the local lads train during the week in Limerick. We hope that this run will help to make other amputees aware of the Irish association. There are a lot of amputees out there and they don’t know about the association,” said David who hopes to run the first leg in Limerick.
David completed a 10k in aid of hospice funding and he has also done the Marie Keating Foundation 5k.
“In preparation for the run the players have mostly trained separately as the team is made up of players from all four corners of Ireland but come together every second Saturday for football training in Dublin. They were given a basic training programme to follow and encouraged to train as much as possible. The biggest hurdles most of them found was trying to convince passers-by that stopped them in the street, they were not mad nor, did they need a lift, but were out training for the Barrington’s Hospital Great Limerick Run marathon relay,” according to Simon Baker.
“Most of these players would not have dreamt a few months ago that they would run a mile. Barrington’s Hospital Great Limerick Run is great training for the players and their stamina as the game of amputee football, which is played on crutches without the prosthetic is fast, highly skilled and competitive with players demonstrating incredible fitness “, he added
The Irish Amputee football Association (IAFA) was set up in 2011.
“The aim of the Association is to develop a national Irish league for Amputees and promote and develop the sport of amputee football,” according to Diarmuid.
Their entry to the Barringtons Hospital Great Limerick Run is to raise funds for an amputee football tournament, which they will host in Limerick on August 9 to 11. The Paddypowers.com Amputee Cup will see England, Poland, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium compete against Ireland. Over 100 amputee footballers will descend on the University of Limerick for two days of football.
