Anyone remember Meath Olympic Handball - International IOHA Tri-Nations in Gormanston this weekend
Anyone remember when Olympic Handball was popular in Meath with action across the Primary Schools and Secondary Schools and featured adult teams also.
Olympic Handball was played extensively in Meath up until about 10 years ago and this weekend a major international tournament will be staged in the Royal County.
The Irish Olympic Handball Association (IOHA) will host the KamaGames-sponsored Tri-Nations tournament this weekend in the sports complex at Gormanston College.
With free admission for spectators for each game across Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon it's an ideal opportunity to see some top class handball.
The KamaGames Tri-Nations tournament (men's teams) will feature Ireland, England (Great Britain) and the USA.
For anyone in Meath who played Olympic Handball in the priimary schools or secondary schools competitions or on the ladies teams that played in the Women's National League this is an ideal opportunity to see some top quality handball locally.
See our selection of Olympic Handball phots from the Meath Chronicle archives.
Top IOHA offical Tom O Brannagain who was National Coach presenting a trophy around 2008 to Beven McEvoy along with Zita Valaitiene (sponsor Yes Boss) after Primary Schools finals at Claremont Stadium, Navan.
Meath under-age players Caroline Maloney, Amy Gillen and Jacinta Maher were on scoreboard duty for Primary Schools final at Claremont Stadium.
At a presentation following a Primary Schools' final were sponsor Zita Valaitiene (Yes Boss), Cliona Moore, (St Joseph's captain and Anna Flanagan team coach. All photos: John Quirke
ACTION PHOTOS FROM PRIMARY SCHOOLS FINALS
THIS WEEKEND'S TRI-NATIONS TOURNAMENT
The Ireland panel for the Tri-Nations is:
NAME CLUB COUNTRY COUNTY
Jules Lavirotte (Dublin City Handball IRL) / Dublin
Sean Thiel (Astra Wings IRL) / Dublin
Balazs Bihari (Astra Wings IRL) / Dublin
Blake Van Duyvenvoorde (Astra Wings IRL) / Kildare
Donal O’Doherty (Astra Wings IRL) / Kildare
Pontus Bonaguidi – (Hellas HK SWE) / Kildare
Chris O’Reilly (HP Warta SWE) / Kildare
Sean O’Reilly (TV 1877 Lauf GER) / Dublin
Colm Thiel (HC Forchheim GER) / Dublin
Chris Bregazzi (Pforzheim GER) / Dublin
Steffan Meyer (Regensburg Adler GER) / Dublin
Alex Kulesh (Team Norrebro DEN) / Kildare
Thomas Grace (Tornby IF DEN) / Kildare
Anthony Tomas (Reading Lions ENG) / Mayo
Kostas Thompson – (Patras HC GRE) / Mayo
The Fixture schedule is:
Friday 25th October - Ireland v USA, 7pm;
Saturday 26th October- England (Great Britain) v USA, 4pm;
Sunday 27th October - Ireland v England (Great Britain), 1pm.
Currently the IOHA Leagues are underway and here is the update - no action this weekend due to Tri-Nations
WOMEN
Dublin City and Astra pick up where they left off last season
Dublin City and Astra is the only game to take place so far and what a game it was!
The two best teams from last season met in Dublin City University and if all the games this season are as good we are in for a great season.
Astra started well, lead by a handful of goals at half time but were slow to start in the 2nd half. DCH came out of the changing room for the second half a different animal and set to work cutting the goal difference, but try as they might they couldn’t get ahead of Astra who used all their experience to run out 24-23 winners.
MEN
Dublin City lay down a marker with two big wins for last years league runners up.
Dublin City have for the last few seasons been the only serious challengers to Dublin International in IOHA competitions and while the champions are yet to tip off in the league, DCH have hit the court running
First up were the students of UCD and try as they might the light blues came nowhere near challenging the hosts and as a result they ran out winners on a 41-19 scoreline.
DCH hosted Astra Wings, a recent amalgamation of Astra and Dublin Wings of whom good things were expected.
However DCH ran out winners on a 37-18 scoreline.