HANDBALL: The 11th World Handball Championships were officially unveiled at Croke Park yesterday, with the tournament taking place at several venues across Ireland from October 17th to 26th.
Over 1,000 competitors from eight countries, including first-time entrants from the Basque region of Spain, will be competing across 60 grades.
It is the fourth time the event has been held in Ireland. The premier competitions are the open singles and doubles, which begin in Croke Park on October 19th.
In the men's singles, Irish hopes are pinned on second seed, and Cavan footballer, Paul Brady. His main opposition will be US champion John Bike.
Antrim's Fiona Shannon is expected to be the main threat to the strong American and Canadian contingent in the women's singles.
However, several distinguished veterans will also be looking to build on the 10 titles Ireland won at the previous world championships in Chicago, in 2000. At 34, Walter O'Connor isn't a stranger to the circuit. In 1991 he won the under-23 world championships in Phoenix, Arizona, while three years later he won the open singles world championships in Ireland.
O'Connor has played minor county football for Meath and has also won seven county football championship medals with Seneschalstown. However, a bad car crash two-and-a-half years ago threatened to end to his career.
"I was knocked unconscious for 12 hours," he said. "I was out of work for a year-and-a-half with a shoulder, back and knee injury after the car somersaulted 15 times down the field. So after something like that you would kind of wonder."
In the last six months he has regained the required fitness level to continue a run that has seen him compete in every world championships since 1988. "I have only just regained form again. I was told I would never play again, so it was a big thing to be back," he said.
While O'Connor competes in the singles event, he sees his main chance of glory lying in the doubles.
"The world open doubles is more our title, myself and Tom Sheridan. We won the All-Ireland last week, we got to the semi-finals in Chicago, so we are hoping to do well in that.
"We have a Canadian and a Tyrone guy in the first round (Danny Bell and Ciarán Curran), then we have the American number one seeds in the semi-final. They are Norm Dunne and Marco Chavez, a very, very good team from California. They are both full-time professional players as well."
Having travelled all over the world with his sport, O'Connor is well placed to judge whether the Irish Handball Council can run the tournament to the same standards as their US and Australian counterparts.
"They've got their work cut out, to be honest with you," he said, "but at the same time we can, because we really are the home of handball."
The Handball Council president, Tony Hayes, is also confident of a successful 10 days despite the wide range of venues. In the US they have the facilities to hold the event in one location.
"It goes well in the States because they have a court complex where there is maybe 15 or 20 courts together. Unfortunately Ireland is not like that. We're spread all over the country," he said. " Ireland is Ireland and we have to deal with what we have. I think it is a novelty; people are actually looking forward to coming to Ireland. They know what the Irish hospitality is like."
GAA president Seán Kelly, who was at the launch yesterday, paid tribute to the officials and players who have led the way in international handball for over a 100 years.
"This has become more important in recent decades when our players have achieved remarkable successes in the United States and Canada as well as in the World Championships," said Kelly.
Due to the transition to the international courts (40ft x 20ft) in recent years hopes are high Ireland's Brady, Tony Healy and Eoin Kennedy can win the highest accolade. All compete regularly in America. The one-wall and four-wall events are to be played in Kilkenny, while the juvenile and masters events are to be played across five venues, Carlow, Laois, Wexford, Wicklow and Tipperary. The Open A, B and C events will be played in courts around Dublin and the redeveloped complex in Kingscourt, Co Cavan.
