College Tribune | September 16 2008
Sport
27
Dan Hayden
Kitbag Jordan
Daly
Sports Expo 2008 Visit the club stands at the Sports Expo in association with Bank of Ireland, which will take place this week from Monday September 15th to Thursday 18th inclusive. Located in Hall B of the Sports Centre, the Sports Expo will open each day from 10a.m. to 5p.m. All 59 clubs will be participating in the event, with club officials on hand to provide information on their activities.
Up for it
Irish record set at Paralympics cycling in Beijing
Steven West casts an eye into his basketball crystal ball and looks ahead for the new UCD-Marian season There is a lot of excitement heading into the 2008/2009 season for UCD Marian. Although the team struggled for much of last year there were encouraging signs at the end of last season that point to better things to come. The team ended last season just one game outside the playoffs after winning six of their last seven games, including an emphatic away win against northern conference champions Killester. A number of changes have been made to this years squad although the core of Irish players remains the same as last year. The main loss amongst the Irish players is UCD graduate Kevin Foley who took a job opportunity in Belfast and is going to play with Northern conference rivals Belfast Star. Foley was the leading Irish rebounder and scorer for the team and will leave a formidable gap in the middle for the team. One person the club are hoping to help fill that gap will be second year medical student Luke McCrone. McCrone has a lot of experience playing college basketball in America with Harvard, he also helped lead the UCD Marian division one team to National Cup success. Returning to this years team is
current third year commerce student Barry Drumm who showed his vast potential last year particularly in the cup match against Tralee on national television. Peter Finn who has just graduated from UCD also returns and is one of the top prospects on this young team after captaining the under 20 team to the national cup final last year. Team captain Niall Meany comes back to lead the charges for a third straight season. His brother Conor who also graduated last year comes back for his third season for the team and is expected to be a big contributor to the team this year. Lastly, veteran Gary Edge return for another season. Edge suffered a tough Achilles injury at Christmas last year that brought his season cruelly to an end. Joining the team this year are two exciting fresher twins Dan and Conor James. The two brothers were Ireland’s leading scorers at the under 18 Europeans in Hungary this past summer. Both join the college on scholarship and are expected to be major contributors for both the under 20’s and Superleague teams. Coach Cormac Connor has secured the signing of David Ryan who will return for a second season for the club.
Ryan was the leading scorer and rebounder for the team last season and his return is seen as a major coup by many in the club. Joining Ryan is 6’2 guard Michael Parker. Parker played last season in Germany where he averaged over twenty points and six rebounds a game. Coach Connor is also looking at one or two other Irish players to further strengthen the squad. The team will compete in the Northern Conference against Killester, St. Vincents, UU Elks and Belfast Star. Three of the five teams will reach the playoffs and a playoff spot is certainly within the teams reach this year. The highlight of last year was undoubtedly the cup semi final appearance on national television, this year the team has a home quarter final draw against defending cup champions Killester. The first fixture of the season is a league game away to Tralee on the 4th of October followed by a home game on the 12th to Northern Conference champions Killester. For those looking to join basketball come down to the Sports Expo this week and sign up. There will be organised scrimmages each week as well as a team entered in the freshers and varsity competitions.
Michael Delaney and David Peelo set a new Irish record in the cycling sprint in the Loashan Velodrome at 13th Paralympic Games. David Peelo, the sighted pilot rider, who has been racing competitively since 1984, is a member of staff in UCD Registry. The parallel cyclists are due to compete in several more cycling events over the course of the remaining days of the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. Olympic style games for athletes with a disability, the Paralympics were first held in Rome in 1960. By 2004, when the games were held in Athens, the number of participants had increased from 400 athletes from 23 countries to 3,808 athletes from 136 countries. More than 4,000 athletes from 150 nations will compete in the 13th Paralympics in Beijing. The Paralympics concentrate on the athletic achievements of the participants rather than their disability. According to the parallel cyclists, any or all of their success is due in no small part to their strong working and training relationship - Michael Delaney who has peripheral vision rather than straight, and David Peelo who is the sighted member of the cycling duo. “A sighted pilot rider needs to be a good match for the other person,
with similar technique. Both members of the team have to be comfortable pedalling at syncronised speeds and be capable of communicating effectively with each other,” says Peelo. “The team flew out to Beijing for training two weeks before the start of the Games to see how we would fare with the conditions over there.” And having just set a new Irish record, it would appear that the cycling duo have settled in just fine.
UCD players represent Ireland lacrosse Ireland’s women finished 4th among the 10 teams at the 2008 European Lacrosse Championships, and the men finished 6th out of 18 teams. Winning Division B with a 4 - 0 record, the women played Scotland, third in Division A, for third place in the tournament, but lost, 15-8. Completing Division A with a 4 - 1 record, the men lost two second round games by a total of three goals before losing to Finland, 9-8, for 5th place in the tournament. UCD women’s captain, Nicola Mulrooney, along with UCD players, Pamela Smithwick and Anna Kinsella, were on the successful women’s team. Pamela led the UCD players scoring several goals, including a hat-trick against Finland. Nicola and Anna were great around the field having many turnovers and groundballs around the field. Seven UCD men travelled to Finland on the team. Midfielders, Paddy O’Leary, John O’Connor and Zak Jordan and defensemen, Dara McCreary and Conor ‘Flopsy’ Walsh, all played a huge part on the men’s team. Recent UCD graduate, Peter Tully, and UCD lecturer, Michael Kennedy, were also on the team. UCD coach, Christian Arnold, was also involved as he was assistant coach for the men’s team. After coming 2nd in their first round group which included a great 10-4 win over Wales, the men lost heart-breaking playoffs to the Netherlands 11-10 and Germany 10-8. In the 5th place playoff, Ireland’s men trailed the host’s Finland 6-3 at halftime, but closed the lead to one goal before time ran out in the second half. A great experience was had by all with both teams improving their European rankings, and the championships were a huge stepping stone towards the Women’s World Cup 2009 in Prague, Czech Republic and the Men’s World Championships 2010 in Manchester, England.