A great night for sport and the Kennedy family

Editorial Department • Published 11 Mar 2010 10:27 0 Comments

The Fermanagh Sports Awards 2009 proved to be a great night for all of Fermanagh Sport on Friday night and in particular for the Kennedy family with U23 World Rowing Championship gold medallist Leonora Kennedy being named Senior Personality of the Year while her father Iain was the recipient of the Service to Sport accolade.

Leonora's achievement of winning gold with the Great Britain U23 eight at the World Rowing Championships earned her the title of Senior Sports Personality on a night when the strength in depth in Fermanagh sport and the outstanding level of achievement shone brightly.

No less than 24 different sports were featured in the nominations and by definition everyone at the awards was a winner at least at provincial level or beyond and for Fermanagh to produce such excellence in so many different sports was the undoubted theme of the evening.

Unfortunately. Leonora, who trains four hours every day of the week, could not attend the celebration as she was training in preparation for the forthcoming

She did, however, speak to the Impartial Reporter, who sponsor the Fermanagh Sports Awards, on her accolade and missing a great night.

In addition to Leonora's win as Senior Sports Personality of the Year her father Iain Kennedy, the recently retired manager of the Lakeland Forum picked up the Service to Sport Award.

The Service to Sport award is given to individuals who, over the years, have played a significant part in the development of local sport in Fermanagh, or have given time and unconditional voluntary effort to support local sport.

As such then, Iain Kennedy is a worthy winner. He is a unique man, whose involvement in sport, as a player and a coach, has spanned the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and he is continuing to coach to the present day. He first became involved in rowing in 1964 at the tender age of 14 and was involved in many competitions representing his school, university and country.

Iain rowed in the: 1975 World Championships - Nottingham, 1976 Olympic Games - Montreal, 1977 World Championships - Amsterdam, 1978 World Championships - New Zealand (the first Irish Crew to make a world final) and the 1980 Olympic Games - Moscow.

As an enthusiastic and inspiring Coach, Iain has worked with children and students from all the post primary schools in Enniskillen - Mount Lourdes, Portora Royal, St Michael's, St Fanchea's, Erne Integrated College and Devenish College. Many of his athletes have gone and excelled and represented their universities in rowing. Some have even captained their Crews. Although he has recently retired as manager of the Lakeland Forum, he is still actively coaching rowing on a regular basis. He is a quiet, unassuming individual with a great love and passion for his chosen sport. Fermanagh has been extremely lucky that he came to live here with his family in 1990. He has been at the forefront of endeavours to make rowing in Fermanagh cross community and cross gender with considerable success.

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 11 Mar 10

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