Transplant Team Ireland - First Three Days of Games

Home

The News

Games Latest

First Three Days of Games

Written by Laura Cassin

Monday, 20 June 2011

Irish Transplant team is enjoying great success at the 18th World Transplant Games

The Irish Transplant Team is enjoying great success at the 18th World Transplant Games in Sweden. On the first three days of the Games, the largest ever Irish team to take part in the World Games, with 33 transplant athletes, has secured 11 medals including 5 gold , 2 silver and 4 bronze medals.

The youngest member of the team, 9 year old kidney transplant recipient, Oisin O'Gorman from Lismore, Waterford, has won two gold medals already for the 50m race and 10-pin bowling. Oisin competed in Badminton today and we can confirm that he has won another Gold! Oisin’s father Kieran donated a kidney to him two years ago.

Fellow Waterford (city) competitor, Eoin Hurley won his first medal of the tournament in Badminton today also. After a fantastic performance, Eoin was delighted to have secured a silver medal for his age category. Eoin, who is also a fantastic golfer narrowly missed out on a bronze medal on Sunday. He is due to play tomorrow Here's what he had to say about his performance in paired golf competition;

"The golf course is fantastic, the scenery is unbelievable even with the rainy weather. I played very well, but unfortunately not good enough. I thought a score of 78 would have been enough, but with the world games you never know. Hopefully if I shoot that on Tuesday, I should win the singles. I’ve had plenty of time to practice and I might improve on the respectable score that I got in the team event."

Today Oisin’s teammate, liver transplant recipient Deirdre Faul from Dalkey, secured Gold in the Squash event. John Moran from Glasnevin, a living related kidney transplant recipient who is 26 years transplanted, won a Gold medal in a 20k cycling event on Saturday for his time of 34 minutes and 35 seconds. Kidney transplant recipients James Nolan (from the Curragh) and Mick Dwyer (from Cabinteely) won a silver medal in a Golf Pairs event yesterday. The pair were visibly overjoyed as they were announced as second place winners.

On Saturday, Galway native (Renmore) Sinead McGowan, travelled from Sydney to compete with the Irish team and won a bronze medal in the 3k mini marathon in a fantastic time of 15 minutes 40 seconds. On Saturday also, Liver transplant recipient Tony Gartland from Hacketstown also secured a bronze for the 5k mini marathon coming in at a time of 20 minutes 47 seconds.

Now living in Spain, Angela Sherlock, a kidney transplant recipient from Walkinstown, won a bronze medal for Bowling yesterday. Eamonn Malone from Cavan, the oldest member of the Irish Team, also a kidney transplant recipient, won a bronze medal also in his age category for Bowling which also took place yesterday.

You can get regular updates on the website and for a medals tally click on the 'Irish Medalists' tab at the top of the home page. A schedule of events is also listed on the website. At the previous World Transplant Games which were held in Gold Coast, Australia in 2009, the Irish team of 19 athletes scooped 10 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze. The 22 medals haul placed Ireland eleventh out of the 50 competing countries on the medals table. Ireland's chances of earning more medals is looking very promising!

[ Back ]