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Ready to roll at the Euro Festival!

Wednesday, 21 July 2010

Ragus, who will be part of the free entertainment at the eagerly awaited Euro festival which begins next weekend.

EURO Festival Sporting events get underway on Monday July 26th. The Basketball Tournament will be played at Our Lady's Bower, Athlone Community College, and Athlone IT. The Irish/Athlone team are playing at 9am, 10.30am and 12 noon at the Bower Gym. The Semi Finals are at 3.45pm and the Final at 5pm at the Bower Gym.
On Tuesday July 27th, Petanque will commence at 9am in Burgess Park and will continue all day up to 5pm. On the same day at 7.30pm there will be a relay race on the East side of town with 4 runners from each country completing a 2 lap event over a 1.7km route.
On Friday July 29th, Soccer Tournament commences at 9am at the Regional Sports Centre and the Irish/Athlone team are playing at 9am, 10.30am and 12 noon. The Qtr Finals are at 2.45pm, Semi Finals at 3.45pm and the Final at 5pm. Also on Friday the Swimming competition commences at the same venue at 9am.
These Tournaments are a very important part of the festival for the participants. It gives each participant an excellent opppportunity and privilige to represent their country and town. The games are competitive but played in the spirit of Fair Play, Fun and Friendship.
We caught up with the leaders from 2 of the sports to find out how preparations have been progressing and to find out some details on the players. Thomas Browne from the Soccer squad and Aidan Gallagher from the Basketball team.
Basketball
Aidan tells me that the teams to watch out for in Basketball are Luxembourg defending champions and Greece, Spain, Portugal and Lithuania
Ireland however seem ready to meet any challenge with a group of players combining both experience and talent , with many of the players representing Athlone as well as national league and international teams. Ireland may prove a tough team to beat with this years squad.
Aidan is ready
“The ladies have done it all before and with local stars such as Edel Folan, who now plays with Moate, and current senior Irish international Fiona Scally from Summerhill to dominate the inside game against Europe's best. Joined by Moates point guard dynamo Collete McEnroe from Coosan and the ever reliant Joanne Naughton with 9 european festivals to her name, these girls will surely give Ireland an even footing with any of the continental teams. In fact in a game that requires 2 girls on the floor at all times with 3 men, these girls are the key to any victory.
The men have got a combination of both skilled and experienced players, who have all represented Athlone at senior level as well as playing for some of the biggest and best Superleague and division 1 teams in the country. In fact Ian McLoughlin,(Iona Park and 4 EPF tours) who plays with Neptune of Cork, has recently been selected on a southern conference all star team to play travelling college teams from the USA.
Joining him from the superleague is 6ft 10 giant Conor Gallagher (Ulster elks) who is a regular at tournaments in an Athlone jersey. Combining with 6ft 6 Glasson local David Parker, these 2 "Twin towers" will give the competition something to think about.
From 2009 division 1 league and cup champions is naturalised Irishman and ferocious competitor Tadas Navickas, and Coosanite Aidan Gallagher 9 time EPF competitor and flying home from Japan to participate.
Bealnamulla bigman Emmet Keogh who starred for Athlone and is attending his 5th european festival completes the squad and could be the man to watch in the dying seconds of any close game.
The Irish will certainly have a huge task ahead of them if they are to finally take the basketball crown from continental teams but are a very determined squad not used to losing many games and hopefully with lots of support from the locals on the 26th, it will be an Irish flag being raised the highest come final whistle."
Soccer
Thomas is also very confident that he has assembled an excellent team to give Ireland an excellent chance of gaining honours.
“Our team consists of both new and regular festival participants with the emphasis firmly on winning outright the tournament.
The tournament is a fantastic one-day event with four groups of four teams, the winning team from each group progresses to the semi-final and the opportunity to take home the title in the grand final. In recent years Denmark, Spain and Italy have been the teams to beat however this year our cousins across the pond in Scotland are tipped to bring a quality clan.
This year we have been drawn in a tough group consisting of Germany, Finland and Hungry meaning all the experience of previous tournaments will be needed from veteran players like centre back Niall Mackey making his 11th international appearance at the festival, Sarah Hogan just recently back from defending the people of Chad now hopes to continue that success with excellent defense work at right back and Temple Villa's pillar in defense Gary Flanagan.
We will be issuing a number of fresh international caps to debutants brought into our squad giving it a strong, fit and energetic look. Games are played with electrifying pace over the course of twenty minutes, leaving it essential to have players with the strength of Kieran Martin, stamina of Ronan Moran along with a magician that can unlock a defense in David (Pints) Adamson making his international debut on 29th July.
A team that wants to win a tournament of this magnitude can only do so with forward players born with the knack of scoring goals. Ireland certainly have those sharp shooters required in Thomas Browne (18 international goals), Peter Smyth (13 international goals) and the quick feet of debutant Nuala Moroney. All of Ireland's outfield talent would count for nothing but for the save hands of Goalkeeper Noreen Devery whom has the experience of representing Ireland Ladies at many levels. Our soccer team would love
all the support
we can receive on tournament day July 29th in the Athlone Regional Sports Centre at
9am."

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