On Wednesday April 24th, our U11 girls Olympic Handball team travelled to University of Limerick to participate in the All-Ireland Olympic Handball finals.
After a long bus journey to the Limerick venue, the girls were straight into a round robin group competition that would determine the pairings for the upcoming semi-finals. Our first game was against Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers from Cork and after a fiercely competitive game, the girls came out on the wrong side of a 7-5 scoreline. The group stages also pitted our girls against St. Patrick’s Primary School from Portrush and Corrandulla National School from Galway. The girls fought exceptionally well in these games and came away with two vital victories, beating St. Patrick’s 8-1 and Corrandulla 5-2.
These results meant the girls finished 2nd in the group and were pitted against Corrandulla National School in the All-Ireland semi final. They proceeded to produce one of their best performances of the day winning comprehensively with all ten panel members contributing handsomely. In the other semi final, Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers from Cork came out on top meaning the All-Ireland final would be a repeat of our first game of the day.
After an exceptionally competitive game, the girls came out on top with the final score reading St. Attracta’s SNS 7 Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers 3. Our girls played exceptionally well and scored some fantastic goals with Katie Darcy getting three of these and Amy Clarke scoring four.
It is a superb achievement for the group and their coach, Ms. O’ Gorman. It is the first time in the school’s history to achieve success at this level and the girls should be so proud of their success. A huge thanks to Ms. O’Gorman for all her hard work throughout the campaign.
Back row (L-R): Katie Darcy, Amy Clarke, Sophie O’Toole, Elyse Delicato, Abbie Rowland, Ms. O’Gorman.
Front Row (L-R): Lucy Morris, Aisling O’Brien, Alannah McLoughlin, Íde Humar, Laura McGarrigle.