Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly won’t forget September 2024 in a hurry. It began with the pair winning gold and silver at the Paralympics and it’s finished with them collecting two more gold medals at the world road championships in Zürich, the second coming on Wednesday in the tandem road race. And, for good measure, Eve McCrystal and Josephine Healion took bronze, giving the podium a distinctly Irish hue. “I am absolutely over the moon,” said Dunlevy, and so she should be, this the latest success in a medal-packed career. Shane Stokes reports on yet another special day for the 42-year-old.
In Gaelic games, Ciarán Murphy looks ahead to next month’s four interprovincial “sandbox” matches at Croke Park that will showcase the Football Review Committee’s proposed rule changes. And Gordon Manning brings news of a windfall for Gaelic games which proved the big winner in the distribution of the Government’s €230 million Community Sport Facilities Fund.
The FAI could do with a windfall themselves, Gavin Cummiskey reporting on their efforts to secure an annual grant of €10 million from the government to help fund their club academy system.
In rugby, John O’Sullivan talks to Leinster’s Jordan Larmour, who says he was back playing with a smile on his face last season after staying injury-free, and he also hears from Andrew Goodman, Ireland’s new backs coach, ahead of next week’s Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa. Gerry Thornley, meanwhile, caught up with Railway Union captain Niamh Byrne on the eve of the start of the new All-Ireland League campaign.
Your complete guide to all the festive sporting action including TV details
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Johnny Watterson looks in to the details of the latest report from the Irish Rugby Injury Surveillance project, noting that the most common injury among Irish Schools Senior Cup players was concussion. That’s a blight too in American football, Dave Hannigan reporting on the shocking fact that eight high school players died in the first month of the season, the chief causes “head hits, heat stroke and cardiac events”. “All part of the demented game,” he writes.
In golf, Philip Reid previews the Spanish Open where Jon Rahm is aiming for his fourth title on home soil, while Brian O’Connor reports on Flooring Porter’s resounding success in Wednesday’s Kerry National at Listowel. “Easy to sum up,” he says, “straight to the lead and stayed there”. That’s the way to do it.
TV Watch: Golf’s Presidents Cup gets under way in Montreal today with the United States taking on an international team in the biennial competition (Sky Sports Golf, 6pm-11pm). And there’s a heap of Europa League action on Premier Sports and TNT Sports through the afternoon and evening, including Spurs’ meeting with Azerbaijan’s Qarabağ (8.0).
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