DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Aisling covered this previously on “World Surf Kayaking Champion, Irish Paddler of the Year and 3rd year student at DCU, Lenny Kelleher - gets no funding.”
Following on from this, Steve McGowan emailed me today with this amazing, and frankly ridiculous, story:

Last night saw the DCU Clubs & Societies Awards take place in the Helix in Glasnevin. This saw some of DCU’s most successful students all get together to celebrate their achievements for the year and to further honor those who were particularly outstanding.

There was no surprise from anyone that Len Kelleher was one of eighteen nominated for an award for Best Individual Sporting Performance/Best Individual Administrator. For those of you who haven’t heard of Len before he is currently the World Surf Kayaking Champion and Irish Paddler of the Year but as Aisling reported before he receives no funding from his college.

The awards ceremony was great and all the winners were well deserving but there was one noticeable omission. Len Kelleher was again ignored by his college and he didn’t receive one of the five awards given out to the nominee’s in his category. Although the other award winners did tremendous work during the year to get nominated, none of them have a World Title to their name other than Len. It really is crazy that he gets no recognition for his achievements on the one night on the DCU calendar which is meant to be dedicated to celebrating these achievements.
In how many other sports does Ireland currently hold a World Title?

As an ex student of DCU, I struggle to keep a positive mind in this. To be honest, it just says a lot about the state of funding and support in general for minority sports in the country….. Hopefully his example will lead to future support and funding for others in his sport (we can only hope!).

Image Credit: Len Kelleher during the finals at Kayak Surf World Championships in Bakio, Mundaka October 2007

- Neal :) -

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Last weekend saw an invasion, not from those Welsh rugger types, but in the form of 100+ climbers who descended on Dublin for the Irish Climbing Intervarsities. This year the competition was hosted by DCU, with the bouldering element taking place at their college wall and the leading section in Westwood Sports Centre in Clontarf.

The route setters certainly made things interesting for the first day by putting together some tough problems. The competition followed the format of the Irish Bouldering League but one problem broke from this by allowing as many tries as the competitors desired. This longer problem proved very popular, only seeing one clean ascent on the easier beginners version and another close miss on the advanced version. The day ended with good point separation between the females and with the points very close for the males with the leaders in Male A, Female A, Male B and Female B being John Orr, Joan Mulloy, Jason Slevin and Deirdre Cormican respectively.

The leading competition started a bit behind schedule, partly due to everyone feeling a little ropey (yes I did just say that!) after the mandatory night out in the Turks Head the night before. John Orr started the second day off with an impressive clean ascent of what turned out to be the hardest route for the day, a feat no one else would manage to achieve. Jane Gallwey missed the first day but after a great performance on her two leads pulled herself up into 3rd place in Female A. The four routes for the day were enjoyed by all, with many people eager for a second try once the competition finished. The two advanced categories top three were left with comfortable leads once the final scores were added up, with the beginners categories still being close.

After the first day QUBC were ahead in the overall club scores and on the second day they managed to slightly increase their lead to win the Irish Climbing Intervasities for the second year running. They received the first prize of a boulder mat along with the trophy/gravestone which I’m sure they’ll enjoy having to carry back up to Belfast, although there was some complaints from the members that had to carry it down on Friday.

Overall the competition was a success and everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves. We’re all looking forward to next year in Limerick! Of course none of this would have been possible without our sponsors Berghaus, Patagonia, Specsavers, Great Outdoors, 53 Degrees North and Brennan’s Bread. We would also like to thank all our route setters and our volunteers from Westwood Fitness Club who put in a lot of their own time to make this competition possible.

Of course no report would be complete without the results so I’ve added them below. The complete results are available here.
For anyone who was involved and wants to get involved in a discussion on the event, don’t forget TGU boards, or else hit the forum on said topic on climbing.ie!

• Male A - 1. John Orr (QUBC), Damien O’Sullivan (TCD), 3. Richie Sandes (DIT)
• Female A - 1. Joan Molloy (NUIG), 2. Mary Moloney (GMIT Castlebar), 3. Jane Gallwey (TCD)
• Male B - 1. Jason Slevin (QUBC), 2. Colm Shannon (UL), 3. Owen Largey (QUBC)
• Female B - 1. Deirdre Cormican (GMIT), 2. Jade O’Mahony (NUIG), 3.Barbara Bracko (DCU)”

- Stephen McGowan & Ailish Grennan -

(Image Credit: Jonathon Mullen & Nicole Quinn)

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) World Surf Kayaking Champion, Irish Paddler of the Year and 3rd year student at DCU, Lenny Kelleher - gets no funding!! Because his sport isn’t recognised by his college. How scandalous is that! How many world champs do you know with no funding?! (I believe his brother is also ranked in the Freestyle kayaking world top 10.)

Crazy…..

EDIT: I should have included this promo video in my original post: Len Kelleher Promo Vid.

-Aisling-

KILDARE, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - And so the final round of the Irish Bouldering League finished up with a hot final round. Not hot due to the pressure on the competitors, but mainly due to the inability to turn off the heating in the room! :) Still though, with a stunning turn-out (150 people handed in their cards, but there was more there taking part), it was always going to be hot and stuffy . Not that anyone seemed to mind however, as with competitors turning up from 9:15am onwards (the comp didn’t officially start until 10am!), people seemed seriously motivated for a good day.

As it happened, nothing was going to stop Open A leader, Harry Fogg, from romping home to victory with a successful first go on every problem to finish with maximum points - much to the disappointment of the route setters who hoped that he might even slip up once :) Still though, it was a close finish for everyone else with only narrow points separating the rest of the competitors of the Open A league.
In the Female’s, Joan Mulloy, also put in another strong showing to take the final honors. With a successful completion of 12 of the Open A problems (there was two levels of difficulties for each problem - double point going for completion of the harder variation), that’s a top 15 finish in the Open A’s. Guys, you have been warned!
Special mention also has to to go the Juniors who were putting us all to shame with their technical ability. Andrew Colligan lead home the pack, but I think everyone was in awe to see the younger (and much smaller) climbers tick off some of the hard problems with ease.

And so, with only three events taking place this year, the final results were handed out also.
Overall
Open A: 1. Harry Fogg, 2. Ricky Young, 3. Peter O’Farrell
Female: 1. Joan Mulloy 2. Hannah Fogg 3. Anna Cronin
Juniors: 1. Ciaran Rogers 2. Colm Casey 3. Stephen Rogers

For official, and more detailed results, the DCU round results can be found here, and the overall results can be found here.

If you’re looking for photos, keep an eye on this thread on the climbing.ie forums.

Great going all!

Image Credit: 1. Rob Whelan contemplating how to make routes hard, but fair, while route setting for the DCU IBL. Photo by Author
2. The mob, sorry climbers, during the day, DCU IBL. Photo by author

- Neal :)