Sports Council Awards tonight

THE prestigious Derry District Sports Council awards take place tonight (Wednesday), at the Guildhall.

The cream of the crop of sporting talent in the council area will be in attendance with 19 awards up for grabs, from Sports with Disabilities to Sports Team award.

Foursome Joe Barr, Martin McCloskey, Gerard McDaid and Aaron Whoriskey will all receive a special Sports Personality award, after they were nominated by the Sports Council themselves, after their remarkable achievements in 2009.

Eglinton cyclist Barr, who came out of retirement to raise funds and awareness for his son Ross, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour at just five months, won the ‘Round Ireland Challenge’; McDaid who completed his 100th marathon recently, will also be honoured.

Power lifter Whoriskey, who secured gold (bench press) and silver (multi-event) medals at the Commonwealth Power Lifting Championships in India last month, and BDO World Darts competitor McCloskey will pick up an accolade as well.

A special Hall of Fame award will be presented to former flyweight boxer, Neil McLaughlin, who represented Ireland in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

Neil will join fellow Olympians, Anton Hegarty, Liam Ball and Roisin Smyth as the fourth member of the Derry City Sports Council Hall of Fame.

The awards ceremony will get underway at 7.30pm and special guest of honour for this year’s awards will be Mr Patsy McGonagle, who was recently appointed senior team manger for the Irish Athletics team. The Ballybofey man will lead the Irish athletics team to the European Championships in Barcelona in July.

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