Medal haul for Clare competitors

THE Munster Group Clare Community Games had a very successful weekend in Athlone at the HSE national finals.
Clare was represented by 104 children from 11 areas across the county in cycling, swimming, gymnastics, judo, variety, pitch and putt, soccer and volleyball. They brought home a total of 77 medals to seven areas, 21 gold, three silver, 34 bronze and 19 fourth-place medals.
Doora-Barefield won 15 of the gold medals, while Ennis St John’s won six. Clare started off well on Friday evening at the opening parade when they were judged the best turned out county and received the Radio 2 Perpetual Trophy, which they last won in 1984.
The first medal of the weekend was won by the lone judo representative, Róisín Cahill, who was narrowly pipped for gold.
The Ennis St John’s girls’ pitch and putt team, bronze medal winners last year, won gold this time round, with Rachel Coote also receiving gold for the best individual score.
The Doora-Barefield boys’ U-16 squad, who are no strangers to the national finals, swam their way to gold with one of their members, Rory McEvoy, winning fourth place in the backstroke competition.
The Doora-Barefield girls’ volleyball team beat Donaghmoyne of Monaghan in the semi-finals on Saturday in straight sets but it was on Sunday when they faced favourites, Two Mile House of Kildare, that they displayed true character and determination to win gold for their parish and county. They won in straight sets in a very tight game, 25-23, 25-23.
The boys’ volleyball team from Quin-Clooney weren’t as lucky when beaten 2-0 in both their matches but they won the bronze medals. In cycling, all four cyclists qualified for the finals on Saturday. The standard of competition was extremely high but they won two silver and one fourth-place medal.
The Sixmilebridge/Kilmurry variety, who represented Clare for the 27th year, put on a very entertaining show to win fourth-place medals.
In the U-15 soccer, the Ennis St John’s girls played very well in their semi-final but were beaten by a much stronger Fanad of Donegal. Their only scorer was Lauren Keane. Lauren was the top scorer of the match when she scored a hat-trick in their 3-2 wing against Tintern, Wexford to secure the bronze medals.

Results
Gold
Pitch and putt: Ennis St John’s (Hannah Bredin, Aisling Maher, Rachel Coote, Emma Neylon and Elana Bradley).
Individual: Rachel Coote.
Squad boys’ U-16: Doora/Barefield (Rory McEvoy, Lorcan Casey, Patrick Cooney, Hugh McMahon and Nathan Coote).
Volleyball U-16 girls: Doora/Barefield (Gabriela Da Silva, Claire Purcell, Niamh Courtney, Sarah Jane O’Connell, Anna Courtney, Ali McCarthy, Caitriona Ní Riordain, Orla Purcell, Emma Purcell and Enya Feerick).

Silver
Cycling: U-12: Alex McConway (Quin/Clooney).
Cycling U-14: Jennifer O’Neill (Quin/Clooney).
Judo U-30kg: Róisín Cahill (Doora/Barefield).

Bronze
Swimming squad U-13 girls: Doora/Barefield (Tara McEvoy, Laura McDonnell, Amy Lenihan and Ciara Kennedy).
Swimming squad U-13 boys: Ennistymon/Lahinch/Liscannor (Eoin Rouine, Dara O’Donnacha, Patrick O’Rourke, Darragh Cuddihy and Thomas Coleman).
Soccer girls U-15: Ennis St John’s (Aoife Galvin, Laura Brown, Niamh O’Brien, Orla Waters, Fridaous Karimu, Aoife McNamara, Rebecca Windall, Marese Hayes, Amber Ryan, Nina Jablonska, Natalia Fankulewska, Katie Kenneally, Sinéad Mulcahy, Lauren Keane, Katie Shannon and Alma Conway).
Volleyball U-16 boys: Quin/Clooney (Fergal Coughlan, Connor Mahon, Douglas Reddan, Paul Reynolds, Colm Harrison, Eimhin Dunne, Sean Hehir, Eanna Barry and Brendan Dolan).

Fourth-place medals
Variety: Sixmilebridge/Kilmurry (Katelyn Harrington, Aoibhinn Ryan, Tara Ryan, Sarah Merriman, Sinéad Cahill, Edward Shannon, Kim Stephen, Aoife Deegan, Jessica Wilmot, Callum Maxwell, Melissa Morey, Caroline Hogan, Slaine Carey and Éile Ní Lionain).
Cycling U-12 girls: Aisling McGrath (Quin/Clooney).
Swimming U-14 freestyle: Rachel O’Brien (Corofin/Kilnaboy).
U-16 backstroke: Rory McEvoy (Doora/Barefield).
Gymnastics U-10: Niamh O’Halloran (Ennis St John’s).
Gymnastics U-16: Peter Stack (Clarecastle/Ballyea).