Women this Week have been on Fire with Wins across Multiple Sports

The European Cross-Country Championships started off this week with medal places from both Ireland and GBNI teams. Grace Carson made her debut with GBNI and came 5^th overall, giving support to the team with an eventual gold medal in the U23 category.  Team Ireland Senior Women’s Squad won a bronze medal in the event, with 11^th and 12^th finishes from Finn Valley AC’s Eilish and Roisin Flanagan and 31^st with Letterkenny AC’s Ann Maire McGlynn.

Later in the week, Claire Taggart had a successful week at the World Boccia Championships in Brazil. While on Great Britain’s squad she won the gold medal in the BC2 Women’s Final against Rebecca Duarte, of El Salvador with a 7-1 win. She then went on to bring home a silver medal in the BC1/2 team final, with David Smith and Will Hipwell.

The Irish Women’s Hockey Team progressed to the semi-finals with a win against South Korea at the Women’s FIH Hockey Nations Cup. Team Captain Katie Mullan (Ballymoney) won the player of the match. The Team had a challenging match against India today and will hopefully be able to advance to the final, which will be played on Saturday and can be streamed live through Watch.Hockey.

The Irish Winter Swimming Championship started on Thursday with some record-breaking swims. Ellie McCartney, Grace Davison, Zophia Quigley, and Victoria Catterson from Ards SC broke the Irish Senior Club Relay Record in the 4x50m relay with a time of 1:44.03. Catterson went on to win the 100m Freestyle with a time of 54.66 and Danielle Hill (Larne SC) to get third with a time of 55.07. Excited to see what other podium finishes and PBs will come out of the meet this weekend.  If you want to keep up with the results follow the link.

As we move to the weekend, there are more exciting sporting events for Ulster. For the first time, two Ulster teams will be in the All-Ireland final for Camogie. The Senior Final will consist of Loughiel (Antrim) vs Sarsfields (Galway) and the Intermediate final having Clonduff (Down) vs James Stephens. The games will be played at Croke Park on Saturday the 17^th at 16:15 and 18:30 respectively. Good Luck Women! The games will be streamed on RTE2 for the first game and RTEPLAYER.

Additionally, the Junior Club Final will be played this Sunday(18^th) after being rescheduled Adare (Limerick) v Brídíní Óga (Antrim) at 1.00 pm, GAA NGDC, National Sports Campus, Snugborough Rd, Abbotstown, Dublin 15, D15 K4PP. Ulster Ladies Gaelic Football Minor Club Championship is this Sunday 18^th at 13:30 with An Charraig Mhor (Tyrone) vs Lurgan (Cavan) at Augher (Tyrone).

Beyond just championships that have occurred this week, multiple women have been honored for their achievements and projects this year. The BBC Unsung Hero Award Finalists list was released this week with two from Northern Ireland being nominated. Mary O’Hagan formed Ballyronan Bluetits open water swimming club and has become a qualified mental health swim coach to support her community. Anna Pim is also a finalist through her initiative ‘At the Heart of the Game’ which is an education program that has her delivering CPR and defibrillator awareness training to the Under-13 age groups in Hockey clubs.

Amy Broadhurst and Ciara Mageean were two of the ten people nominated for the RTE Sport Awards Sportsperson of the Year. Broadhurst claimed multiple golds this year at the World Championship, Woman’s European Championships, and the Commonwealth Games. Recently, she has also been named the best lightweight boxer in the world! Ciara Mageean won silver at the European Championships in the 1500m and the Commonwealth Games. She became one of the fastest Irish women by breaking Sonia O’Sullivan’s Irish Record by 2 seconds at the Diamond League.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINS AND NOMINATIONS THIS WEEK!

The Female Sports Forum is excited to continue to track all major accomplishments of women in sports and activity here in Northern Ireland.