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Superb Soccer Win for Team Ireland

On the second last day of the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai, Irish Athletes had a hectic schedule competing in ten different sports in blistering sunshine including football, golf and athletics.

At Songiang University Stadium, Ireland’s 11-a-side footballers gave a dazzling display to earn gold against a strong French team to win 7-0. Ireland won all of the games in their pool, having already beaten France 3-0 in the qualifiers; they were well prepared for the French side today. Two goals each from Darren Flanagan and Francis Belardi and goals from Danny Sands, Adrian Clarke and Ryan Doherty left the French defence in disarray. 3 goals in the first half set the Irish team up for an easy second half, which left the French fighting for survival and unable to breach Ireland’s defence. Four magnificent goals in the second half left the Irish coasting all the way to the final whistle, much to the delight of the two hundred or so green-clad Irish supporters, who chanted and sang from the first whistle. Over 400 Chinese school children joined the greens in chorus singing ‘Ole Ole Ole’ when Ireland put the seventh goal away.

In excellent weather conditions, TEAM Ireland golfers headed out onto the spectacular Tianma Country Golf Club greens and the day’s events proved to be just as spectacular with each member of the team getting on to the podium. Ireland ended the day with four medals, one gold, two silver, one bronze and also fourth place.

First off was Oliver Doherty (Buncrana, Donegal) closely followed by Gary Fleming. Oliver, playing off five was paired with a South African who was playing off scratch. Oliver matched him stroke for stroke in a very high quality game, finishing with a silver medal.

Gary Fleming (Whitechurch, Cork) blazed a trail shortly afterwards and scored an incredible 81 in his round. This was Gary’s best performance of the games earning fourth position overall. The foursomes Sligo pairing of Paul Kilgallen and Liam Hyland (Rosses Point) also put in an outstanding nine holes, and won a bronze medal.

The ladies stole the show however, with Ruth O’Mahony (Ballintemple, Cork) romping home with a gold medal in the nine hole competition. The other Irish competitor of the day, Rita Dunne (Kells, Meath), won a silver medal in the eighteen hole competition.

Ireland’s field athletes won a plethora of medals in long jump and shot putt. Shane Heffernan (Tullamore) took silver in long jump and came fifth in the 200m run, completing it in 00:27:86. Joseph Nagle (Kimmage, Dublin) won silver in shot putt and came fourth in long jump. Billy Keane (Clonmel) competed in shot putt and 400m walk, coming third and fourth respectively. Out on the field was Janet O’Donoghue (Killarney) who threw 3.1300m winning her a ribbon for fourth place.

Stephen Field (Cork) charged out of the starting block to achieve a personal best in the 400m run, Stephen ran the race in under one minute 00:59:53, giving him silver for his performance. Donegal woman, Marian Gallagher also secured silver in the 400m walk.

In the state of the art, Shanghai Minhang Gymnasium, table tennis was in the spot light where Irish athletes competed in both doubles and singles matches throughout the day.

First up were Sharon O’ Brien (Buree, Limerick) and Mary Blair (Newtownabbey, Antrim) in ladies mixed doubles, after three matches the pair finished up in third place to win a bronze medal each. Gerry Mc Cormack (Ballymote, Sligo) had a cracking afternoon, playing three matches against Greece and Pakistan. The Sligo man took on Andreas Tsokos (Greece) and won 3-0, he beat Faisal Memmood (Pakistan) 3-2 in the semi final and went on to meet another Greek, Epaminondas Gotsis in the final with a clear win 3-0. Gerry Mc Cormack brings home a gold medal from the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

Today saw Cork win two Gold medals, Timothy Dorgan (Mallow) in the pool and Diarmuid Coughlan (Whitechurch) on the bowling lanes. Swimmer, Timothy Dorgan outpaced his rival from Venezuela to win in a time of 00:54.21. While at Shanghai Gaodian Bowling Hall, Diarmuid Coughlan took gold in a high scoring final, playing consistently over three games to build up an impressive 462 score with only seven pins to spare over the second placed Croatian bowler.

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