County Limerick VEC Sports Awards celebrates Limerick Peoples Achievements

County Limerick VEC held its Annual Sports Awards for 2004 in the Woodlands House Hotel, Adare on Wednesday the 13th July. The night was very well attended with well in excess of 200 people celebrating the achievements of County Limerick sports people both at local and national level.

Bernadette Cullen, Community Education Facilitator of County Limerick VEC acted as MC for the night. The evening was officially opened by Clr. John Griffin Chairperson of County Limerick VEC he stated that the evening was not just a celebration of the achievements of individuals and teams but also an opportunity to recognise volunteerism and active involvement, which succeed in developing a sense of community and well-being.

The main address was delivered by Clr. Paddy McAuliffe Chairperson of the Sports Affairs Sub-Committee. The concept of the awards seeks to acknowledge, recognise and reward sporting involvement, effort and achievement across a wide spectrum of various sports and activities. The awards scheme is organised under the auspices of the County Limerick VEC sports sub-committee who as well as VEC representation also has representatives of various sporting organisations. Clr. McAuliffe paid tribute to the work of the sports sub-committee who organise a range of initiatives each year, not just the awards but also the management and distribution of sports grants and initiatives to encourage increased levels of participation in sport and physical activity. In his address to the audience he delivered the following quotation from Henry Roxborough to encapsulate what the sports awards is all about:

“Sport is one area where no participant is worried about another’s race, religion or wealth: and where the only concern is Have you come to play?”

There were 18 different award categories with 32 award recipients. The Award recipients were as follows: The Sports Star Awards are confined to persons who are 18 or under and whose sporting performance during 2004 merited special recognition. The committee had the difficult task of choosing the award recipients from a high-quality field.

SPORTS STAR AWARD WINNERS

The administration person of the year award went to Pat Fitzgerald for lifetime commitment to promotion of Gaelic Games. Tony Joyce for his role in promoting and supporting the development of Gaelic Games in schools received the Mike Hanley Media Memorial Award.

Special Sports Awards were made by the Committee to both individuals and teams whose success deserves such recognition. The special award winners in 2004 were:

SPECIAL SPORTS AWARDS

The Hall of Fame Award recipient was Jim Hogan (formerly Jim Cregan). Jim Cregan was born on 28th May 1933. During the 1950s he acquired twelve Irish Championships at distances between 2 and 10 miles. He also won eleven Southern Regional Titles with no fewer that eighteen Limerick County Championships. In 1960 he made the decision to move to England in order to compete internationally. He feared that his membership of the Irish body NACA would stop his international aspirations so he changed his name to Jim Hogan. In 1964 he won the three mile South/East Championship of England. T he British AAA recognised his talents and selected him for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Team. This was his first marathon, after 23 miles he was up there with Abebe Bikila who had won the medal in the gold medal in the event four years earlier in Rome. Unfortunately dehydration forced him out of the race as surprisingly nobody had told him he should take drinks during a marathon race. Jim was hugely disappointed and maintains to this day that if he had emigrated a few years earlier he could have finished second to Bikila at both Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964. The Tokyo experience was not lost on Jim, he went on to represent England in the European Championship Marathon in Budapest in 1966 earning himself a gold medal in a time of 2 hours 20 minutes and 4.6 seconds.

Jim now resides in Knocklong having returned to his native County Limerick in 1996 where he indulges himself in his other sporting passion, horse racing. In Jim’s address to the audience he spoke of the regret that his wife was not present to share this occasion with him.

The Special Guest for the night was Rosemary Ryan a former recipient of the Sports Star Award who has since gone on to represent Ireland in the Olympics. In her address to the recipients she stressed the importance of visualising and that without this it is impossible to succeed. She also congratulated all the recipients on their achievements.