Surprise winners among a wealth of talent

Published 12 Mar 2009 12:00 0 Comments

The 20th Fermanagh Sports Awards on Friday night at the Killyhevlin Hotel proved to be a resounding success with a few surprise results ensuring that some lesser known sports that do not enjoy the limelight of the traditional big guns were recognised. None more so than when the Country Club tug of war team scooped the team of the year award ahead of strong candidates such as the Fermanagh senior GAA team that made a first Ulster final in 26 years or the Lisbellaw hurling team that plundered a first ever Ulster title. Lisbellaw, though, were awarded a merit award by the judges, the Fermanagh Sports Advisory Committee, in recognition of their breakthrough success. Indvidual star of the night was motorbike champion Lee Johnston, whose British Superstock success rocketed him to the top of the table ahead of, among others, dual footballing stars Ryan McCluskey, Shane McCabe, Fermanagh captain Martin McGrath and paralympian finalist Karen Cromie.

Lee was not present on the night as he was away testing in Essen in Spain but did send a message of thanks that was displayed on the big screens provdided by fermanagh.tv.

Indeed, guest speaker on the night Roci Allen made a plea for the less popular sports to be given the support they deserve and he was delighted to see his own sport of surfing among the nominations.

Denzil McDaniel, representing sponsors the Impartial Reporter, praised all the nominees for the honour they bring to themsleves and the county and urged them to continue doing so. He picked out Fermanagh"s thrilling draw against Armagh and Shane McCabe"s spectacular goal live on Sky Sports as two stand out moments for him in the season past but also cautioned that it was important to reflect the achievements of the so-called minority sports and this he felt was reflected in the wide range of sports covered in the nominations.

Christine McCann, chairman of the Fermanagh Sports Advisory committee underlined the committee"s commitment to furthering sporting success in Fermanagh and in the year past, the Wall of Fame was expanded to include six former Northern Ireland international footballers. She said that she hoped that all the nominees woud eventually make the Wall of Fame and she added that the committee faced a very difficult job in selecting the various winners.

The Chairman of Fermanagh District Council, councillor Thomas O"Reilly welcomed all the guests to the County"s Sports Awards and reiterated the Council"s commitment to investing in our sports facilities. He added: 'We are very proud of all our sportsmen and women, competing at every level, from the lowest leagues, to those who have achieved international status and recognition. We know that all these athletes perform to the best of their ability and they compete with great enthusiasm. Whatever their sport and whatever their success, we acknowledge their achievements and hard work and we hope that their dedication will continue to bring them success within their respective sports.'

Elsewhere at the awards, it was a good night for local athletics with triple jumper Ciaran Dolan winning the Juvenile Sports Personality award and a £200 bursary from the Fermanagh Sports Advisory Committee while the Sportshall Athletic team won the Junior team of the year award.

Commonwealth Youth games double medallist Chelsey Wilson deservedly took the Junior Personality of the Year award and a £200 bursary from the Impartial Reporter.

The Coach of the Year was awarded jointly to Richard Dooris, boxing and Arunas Savickas, swimming.

The whole event was filmed by fermanagh.tv with the winners interviewed by Fearghal McKinney, commmemorative DVDs of the night will be produced while the awards ceremony will feature heavily in the new digital news service when it is launched officially in May.

A new addition to the Fermanagh Sports awards this year was the filming of the event by fermanagh.tv and Fearghal McKinney of the new digital news and sports service felt that the night was a great success and just the type of event that fermanagh.tv will look to cover in the coming weeks, months and years.

'Friday night was a great success,' said Fearghal. 'The feed back has been very positive and hopefully fermanagh.tv is a chance for the all the sports involved to see their sport reflected in an innovative and exciting way. It is a touchstone event for us and just the sort of sporting and community based event that fermanagh.tv will be all about when we launch officially in May. There is currently a holding page up and running on www.fermanagh.tv which will give everyone an insight into what we are trying to achieve. Anyone who wants to contact us can leave an e-mail address and we can get back to them.'

As part of the night, all the various clubs and teams at the awards were able to put their contact details into a draw and St. Joseph"s GAA club, Ederney were the winners and fermanagh.tv will now come down and film the club in action. This then will be featured on the new website.

Fearghal concluded: 'There was fantastic energy and enthusiasm to all the sports nominees from a wide range of sports. Indeed, it was like a snapshot of Fermanagh life itself across the board and that is just what we will be trying to achieve through fermanagh.tv.'

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 12 Mar 09

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