Last Saturday night, two of Galway’s leading sports women received the most prestigious sports award west of the Shannon when they were honoured at the Connacht Tribune Sports Stars Awards for 2009.

The achievements of both ladies are well documented on this website and elsewhere. But let’s recap for a minute. For Olive Loughnane from our neighbouring club Loughrea AC, 2009 was a fantastic year – becoming only the 4th ever senior athlete from Ireland to win a medal at the World Outdoor Track & Field Championships, ‘following in the footsteps’ of race walker Gillian O’Sullivan and runners Eamonn Coghlan and Sonia O’Sullivan. Well done Olive! 

For our own Cathriona Farrell, 2009 was a special year also – combining a successful Leaving Certificate year with an exceptional year in athletics when she won numerous National titles (as usual!) and topped it off with an incredible 4th place finish at the European Youth Olympics in Finland with a super leap of 1.79m, just missing out on a bronze medal in the process. Well done Cathriona, we’re all so proud of you!