Sports briefs: Countdown on to Mayo Stages Rally
Michaela Walsh has been named Swinford AC's 'Athlete of the Year' for the fourteenth year in-a-row.
Motorsport: The Great National Hotel, Casey’s Londis, Connacht Print & Signs Mayo Stages Rally is fast approaching. Being the first round of four major championship series, the Triton Showers National Rally Championship, The Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship, the Top Part West Coast Championship and Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally series.
Some of the best drivers and machines in the country will be heading to do battle in Ballina.
The Clerk of the Course, David Breen, and his team have been very busy for the last few months preparing for this event that takes place on Sunday, March 3.
With a compact route selected by David and his team, there will be plenty of thrills and spills before a winner is declared back at Rally Headquarters in the Great National Hotel.
Full details of all the competing crews, stage times and locations will be included in the Rally Programme which will be on sale at all major service stations and shops in the Ballina region in the lead-up to the event.
For more updates, follow Mayo Motorsport Club on Facebook and check the club website, www.mayomotorsportclub.com.
Soccer: The Mayo League will take on Kerry League in the Oscar Traynor Cup quarter-final next month.
Joe Kelly’s side claimed the Connacht Oscar Traynor Cup after a 4-1 win over Roscommon & District League last Sunday week, and as a result will play their last eight encounter at Solar 21 Park on Sunday, February 18.
The other quarter-final ties sees Sligo/Leitrim League face the Leinster winners away from home, the Waterford League are at home to the Leinster runners-up, and the Ulster winners will host the third-placed Leinster team.
As a result, the start of the 2024 Mayo League season has been put back by a week to Sunday, February 25, while the U17 Leagues will commence on Sunday, March 2.
Athletics: The numbers just keep on stacking up for shot put star Michaela Walsh who for an incredible fourteenth year in-a-row, has been named as Swinford Athletic Club’s ‘Athlete of the Year’. The latest award is in recognition of a 2023 season that saw her break both indoors and outdoors university records whilst winning a sixteenth national senior title. She also represented Ireland at the European Games in Poland where she won silver.
The club’s awards ceremony was held in Julian’s of Midfield.
GAA: The young footballers of St Tiernan’s College, Crossmolina and Balla Secondary School will face off this coming Thursday, January 25 in the ‘B’ final of the Mayo PPS O’Haire Cup. The game throws in at 12.30pm at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence, Bekan, with extra-time to be played if necessary.
Soccer: There was bitter disappointment for the boys of St Joseph’s Secondary School in Foxford last Tuesday as they lost out in the final of the FAI Schools John Murphy Senior ‘B’ Connacht Cup. Last year’s All-Ireland finalists, a game they lost on penalties, were again beaten on penalties, this time by Glenamaddy Community School. The game at Moyne Villa FC, Headford finished 3-3 after extra-time but it was the Galway side that held its nerve marginally better in the shoot-out, winning 5-4.
