Each weekend, we select performances from Irish sports that deserve recognition. This weekend, in our final feature of this series for 2025, we highlight action in Athletics, Hockey, Swimming, Ladies Football, Camogie, NFL and Darts.
This week’s Champions of the Weekend is brought to you by Lidl, one of Sport for Business’s key partners and a supporter of our coverage of Women in Sport.
Nick Griggs
Nick Griggs won Double Gold for Ireland at the European Cross Country Championships in Portugal, taking the individual U23 medal in a stunning display and leading the team to three top-10 finishes. And he is not 21 until this week.
Katie Mullan
She had captained the Irish Women’s Hockey Team to that famous World Cup Final back in 2018, and yesterday at the Sport Ireland Campus hosting of the FIH Pro League in Dublin, Katie Mullan made her 250th appearance for the Girls in Green.
Kilkerrin-Clonberne
The AIB Club Ladies Football Champions are Kilkerrin Clonburne, achieving the win for the fifth year in a row, with a win at Croke Park on Saturday over St Ergnat’s of Moneyglass. That added Antrim to the list of champions they have defeated on this run at the Final stage from counties Cork, Monaghan, Waterford and Dublin. It moves them into third place on the all-time roll of honour, alongside Donaghmoyne of Monaghan, one behind Connacht rivals Carnacon, and halfway to Ballymacarbry of Waterford.
Cork and Galway Camogie Rivalry
A brilliant All-Ireland County Championship Final in August was matched yesterday when the Champion clubs of Cork and Galway went toe to toe in a drama-filled AIB All-Ireland Club Championship Final at Croke Park. This time, St Finbarr’s of Cork and Athenry of Galway could not be separated and so will have to go again in January after the Galway champions reeled off the last goal and three points of the match.
Irish Swimmers
European Champion Ellen Walshe twice downed the Irish 200m Freestyle Record and Eoin Corby the 200m Breaststroke Record on day two of the Irish Winter Championships at the Sport Ireland National Aquatic Centre, while 16-year-old Lucy O’Brien set a new Irish Junior Record in the 50m Butterfly.
Conor Smyth
Conor Smyth scored a walk off field goal to secure three wins in a row for the New Orleans Saints in the NFL against the favoured Carolina Panthers last night. He was cenbtre stage on the commentary on the game and on the NFL Red Zone coverage putting his name in front of tens of millions that would have been tuned in.
Paul Lims
Only a tenuous connection to Ireland but how can you not pay tribute to Paul Lim, the Singapore Slinger, who won his first round match at the Paddy Power World Darts Championship on Saturday night. The 71 year old now faces Luke Humphries in the second round. The connection to Ireland is that he takes the record for the oldest winner at the Championships from John MacGowan who was 68 when he won in 2008.
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