Wonderful night of celebration at Westmeath Sports Stars Awards
By popular consensus the 2010 Westmeath Examiner Sportstars was the biggest and the best yet. An audience of almost 400, made up from sportsmen and women and their friends, family and well wishers, turned out for the evening of celebration at the Mullingar Aprk Hotel. The award ceremony was compered by RTÉ presenter and sports pundit Colm Murray, who added some of his well-known flair and fun to the proceedings.
The presentation side of the evening came to an end when Mullingar man and Olympian John Joe Nevin was announced as the overall winner. The room rose to its feet and the crowd filled the air with rapturous applause for a very popular winner indeed. John Joe has brought much pride to Mullingar with his boxing wins over the past few years and is best known for his status as an Irish Olympian after he was selected for the Beijing games. The 21-year-old boxer was back in the limelight in September 2009 when he travelled to the World Boxing Championships in Milan.
John Joe, who boxes for Cavan BC was the pride of the Irish team when he battled his way through to the semi-finals and a coveted bronze medal. In so doing he became only the sixth Irish boxer to claim a World Championship medal and brought home the best boxing result the Midlands has ever had. At the time John Joe was hiding a broken thumb and it was widely held in boxing circles that he would have scooped gold if it had not been for the injury.
Long distance runner Jake Byrne proved to be an equally popular choice as Young Sports Star of the year, having received the sports star of the month award for June 2009 alongside fellow athlete Shane Fitzsimons. The pair were described as "two of the crop of budding athletic stars hoping to emulate Cormac Finnerty and previous Sports Stars winner Martin Fagan".
Shane and Jake featured prominently at many of the major events over the past few years. In June, Jake competed in the World Track and Field Championships while Shane was also selected to represent his country in an International Schools Track and Field Championships. The Westmeath Under 16 Camogie team gave a youthful air to the evening and the team filled an entire table at the centre of the room. The team's nomination came on the back of what was described by Colm Murray as and "all too rare All-Ireland victory". Competing in the 'C' championship, the girls in maroon gave their sport a timely boost when they travelled to St. Tiernach's Park in Clones in May and duly recorded an historic victory over Ulster kingpins, Tyrone.
"In winning the All-Ireland crown, this team has given a major lift to the profile of camogie in the county and hopefully they will build on their success in the years ahead," said Colm Murray. Young pitch and putt champion Aoife Carton who received the Sports Star award for July also distinguished herself at all Ireland level after she won All-Ireland title on her first outing. Competing in the All-Ireland Junior Championships in Glenville, Aoife carded a two under par total over the final fifty holes to win by fourteen shots.
It was a night for the girls and rising music star Kathryn Nea stepped up to take the award for January 2009. Representing St Malachys club, Kathryn picked up her second Leinster Scór na nÓg title for solo singing, when claiming the provincial crown in Athlone. Earlier, Frank Mulrennan, Director of Operations with the Celtic Media, Josephine Hughes, Proprietor of the Mullingar Park Hotel and Eilís Ryan, Editor of the Westmeath Examiner spoke of their delight at being able to honour a group of Westmeath's most talented young sportsmen and women.
The evening ended with some rousing music which was provided by the newly formed LOLS who kept the 300 plus audience on their feet into the small hours.