Clare Handballers have collected a total of nine world titles at the World Handball Championships in Calgary.
Tiarnan Agnew and Chloe Philpott were victorious in three and two competitions respectively while Diarmaid Nash, Pat Donnellan, Clodagh Nash and Brídín Dinan also collected gold medals.
Earlier in the week Kilmurry teenager, Tiarnan Agnew partnered Tyrone’s Cormac Munroe to scoop the U15 Big Ball One Wall and Small Ball Doubles. Agnew added to his collection as he shot to glory in the U15 Small Ball Singles with a 21-9 21-14 win over Galway’s Peter Donohue. Over the course of the Championships, Tiarnan played in eleven games and won every single one of them.
Kilkishen’s Chloe Philpott picked up the U11 Girls Small Ball Singles crown to accompany her gold medal for the Big Ball Doubles that she won alongside Sadhbh Ní Fhlaithearta of Galway. Philpott was defeated by Tyrone’s Clodagh Munroe in the Big Ball Singles but she made up for this in the Small Ball equivalent defeating Munroe 15-9, 9-15, 11-6 in the semi-final and followed this up with a 15-12 15-8 final win over Carrickmore’s Clóda Nic Con Midhe.
Tuamgraney’s Diarmaid Nash teamed up with Team Ireland Captain, Robbie McCarthy to win the Men’s Open Doubles in what was the biggest win of his career to date. The duo recovered after a slow start in the first game to go from strength to strength as they won on a score 21-18 21-4. Nash was defeated in the semi-final of the Men’s Open Singles by Cork rival Killian Carroll who lost out to Paul Brady in the final as the Cavan man won a historic fifth straight world title.
Clare were guaranteed a medal in the U17 Girls Small Ball Doubles as Clodagh Nash of Tuamgraney and Nenagh’s Sinead Meagher faced off with Doireann Murphy from Clarecastle and Kilkishen’s Ella Donnellan. In a close game it was Nash and Meagher who prevailed 21-16 21-14. Meagher was responsible for dumping Murphy and Donnellan out of the Small Ball Singles while Nash was defeated 21-4 21-11 by Elise McCrory in the last eight.
Kilkishen man Pat Donnellan was victorious in the Veteran Gold Masters B 55+ competition. Donnellan defeated Minnesota’s Phil Kleineschay 21-13 21-14 in the final having already overcome Denis Phelan, Craig Canfield and James Dunne en route to the final.
Tulla’s Brídín Dinan completed Clare’s success at the World Handball Championships when she and Limerick’s Caitríona Millane took the U15 Girls Small Ball Doubles title. They defeated Lurgan duo Dearbhla Coleman and Megan McCann in the final 21-7 20-21 11-8 in an epic encounter. Tulla’s Aoife Floyd paired with Sinead Doyle from Leixlip were defeated by Coleman and McCann in the semi-final 21-3 21-18. In the singles competition the Tulla pair exited at the last four stage of the tournament.
Amidst all the success, there was some heartbreak for the Banner handballers as Fergal Coughlan, Colin Corbett, Colin Crehan and Natasha Couglan all tasted defeat at the final hurdle.
In the U17 Boys Small Ball Singles, Wexford’s Daniel Kavanagh beat Clooney/Quin teenager Fergal Coughlan 21-16 21-11. Coughlan had already impressed with wins over Patrick Browne, Colin Ryan and Niall Joyce. In the Big Ball Singles it was the eventual champion, Saxa Kruithof Perelló who defeated Coughlan in the semi-finals.
His sister, Natasha was most unlucky to lose out in the final of the Women’s C Singles. It took a tiebreak for Waterford’s Laura Keaver to edge past Natasha on a score of 21-2 14-21 11-5. It was in the final of the Big Ball One Wall C division that Natasha that lost out to Whitehall’s Cassandra Rodriguez 21-5 21-16.
Colin Crehan of the Kilkishen club lost out to promising Galway handballer Martin Mulkerrins in the Men’s U23 Challenger Final 21-15 21-13. Crehan had dispatched of Fergal Lalor and Niall O’Connor before falling short against Mulkerrins. A member of the Clare U21 hurling panel, Crehan linked up with Monaghan’s Darren Doherty in the Men’s Open Doubles but they exited at the Round 32 phase.
Tulla teenager Colin Corbett lost out in the final of the U19 Doubles as he and Cashel partner Daniel Hayes came up short versus Tyrone duo Johnny Woods and Pól Clarke 17-21, 21-10, 11-6. It was Woods who knocked Corbett out of the Singles equivalent in the last four before going on to win the title.
Elsewhere in the Small Ball Singles, Tadhg Floyd exited in the last sixteen round of the U11 Singles, Sean Coughlan bowed out in the quarter-finals of the U13 competition while Mark Crehan of Kilkishen alongside Westport’s Alan Masterson were knocked out of the U15 Doubles by Tiarnan Agnew and Cormac Munroe.
In the Men’s C Singles, Kilkishen’s Michael Baker departed the competition in the last sixteen as Dublin’s Conor O’Connor beat him 12-21 21-17 1-11. Fergal Coughlan Snr was knocked out of both the Men’s A Singles and Doubles by Mallow man Tadhg Carroll, it was a last sixteen defeat in the Singles while he and Oisin Naughton fell to Carroll and Ryan Harkin the eventual winners of the competition.
Clarecastle’s Bernard Scanlan lost out to Mark McCartan of Tyrone 5-21 6-21 in the quarter-final of the Maters B 40+. In the Veteran Gold Master B 55+ Doubles, Kilkishen’s Tom Crehan and Michael O’Connell failed to get past the quarter-final stage while in the Women’s 40+ Tulla’s Angela Floyd couldn’t match Kigomi Kondo in the quarter-finals losing 21-5 21-9.
