Leinster Special Olympics Badminton

Special Olympics Leinster Regional Badminton Competition took place on Saturday 21st March in the Presentation School, Carlow.

Sandra Lynch, Wayne Doyle & Richard O'Dowd from Badminton Ireland performed the Divisioning for the Competition, along withscott_hk__leinster_so Lucie Corcoran, Muriel Moles, Hazel Bird & Breda Connolly (President, LBBUI). Hopefully, they will attend future Special Olympics Badminton Events & perhaps, will be invited to help at the Ireland Games.

Scott Evans (a loyal supporter of Special Olympics badminton) & Hans Kristian Vittinghus arrived in Carlow at lunchtime. Annita O'Connor (athlete from Delta Centre, Carlow) introduced them to the crowd. The lads played an exhibition match to 11 umpired by Muriel Moles, & most of the athletes stood around the court & cheered loudly with the empty shuttle boxes collected by Siobhan in the LBBUI Office! Most people present were amazed at the speed of the game -including the Regional Director of Special Olympics Leinster, Ann Hurley.

scott__leinster_soScott & HK were the feeders for the Individual Skills Competition, which was a fabulous opportunity for these athletes to ‘play' with international badminton players. The Skills Competition aims to improve the badminton skills of athletes so that they can progress to play matches.

Scott & HK also posed for photographs with the athletes & signed autographs for them. There was great excitement amongst the athletes that they had met 2 international badminton players in person!

 

Thanks to Edel Dempsey for report and to Stephen Gormley, Redeye Photography for photos.

Some results are given below....

Ladies Singles:

Division 2: Teresa Barden (SOCGA)

Div 3: Bernadette Kennedy (SOCGA)

Div 4:

  • 1. Teresa Maguire (Moore Abbey)
  • 2. Jill Kelly (Moore Abbey)
  • 3. Siobhan Doyle (KARE)

Div 5: Anita Mills (KARE)

Div 6: Anita O'Connor (Delta)

 

Men's Singles:

Div 2:  

  • 1. John Owens (Delta)
  • 2. Barry Olwill (Delta)
  • 3. Michael Lynch (Moore Abbey)

Div 3:

  • 1. Damien Myles (Moore Abbey)
  • 2. Sean Jackson (SOCGA)
  • 3. Darren Whyte (SOCGA)

Div 4a:

  • 1. Billy Collins (Moore Abbey)
  • 2. Philip Rowan (Delta)
  • 3. Patrick Whelan (SOCGA)

Div 4b:

  • 1. Killian Amond (Delta)
  • 2. Brian Hooper (SOCGA)
  • 3. Patrick Doyle (KARE)

Div 5: Cathal Timmoney (KARE)

Div 6: Brendan Hughes (Delta)

 

Men's Doubles:

Div 2&3:  

  • 1. John Owens (Delta) & Damien Myles (Moore Abbey)
  • 2. Barry Olwill (Delta) & Sean Jackson (SOCGA)
  • 3. Michael Lynch (Moore Abbey) & Darren Whyte (SOCGA)

Div 4:

  • 1. Patrick Whelan (SOCGA) & Killian Amond (Delta)
  • 2. Billy Collins (Moore Abbey) & Philip Rowan (Delta)
  • 3. Brian Hooper (SOCGA) & Patrick Doyle (KARE)