Sports Scholarship Awards for 2005-2006 Announced
Tuesday 13 December

Scholarship recipients (back row from left to right) Linda Byrne (athletics), Gemma Hynes (athletics), Darren Sutherland (boxer), Brona Furlong (athletics), Niamh Devlin (athletics)

The DCU Sports Scholarship Awards for 2005-2006 were announced at a reception held on Thursday the 1st of December 2005 at DCU. 79 Sports Scholarships were awarded across a broad range of sports, including DCU’s focus sports – Athletics, GAA, Tennis & Ladies Basketball. The Sports Scholarship Programme supports the holistic development of talented athletes and recognises their increasing need to successfully balance both academic and sporting commitments. The programme is an athlete led programme whereby support is tailored to the individual needs of the athlete.

The programme recognises that sportspeople compete at different levels during their sporting career and scholarships are awarded at 3 different levels – Development, Talented & Elite. Athletes are given access to an extensive range of facilities and support services to help them excel in their sport and to develop to their full potential while also succeeding in their academic study.

Sports Scholarship recipients were announced by Martin Conry, Secretary of DCU, Yvonne O’Connor Sport & Recreation Officer and Tom O’Donnell, GAA Development Officer. In congratulating the Sports Scholars on their awards Yvonne O’Connor acknowledged some of this years results to include:

• Athletes, Mark Christie, Claire Bergin, Fionnuala Britton and Swimmer Niamh McDonnell representing Ireland in the 23rd World Student Games in Izmir, Turkey in August 2005
• Dessie Dolan, Ross Munnelly and Bryan Cullen representing Ireland in Aussie Rules
• Darren Sutherland, Middleweight Boxer recently competed in the World Senior Boxing Champs in China. Darren finished in 8th place being narrowly defeated by Russian Korobov Matvey who went on to claim the championship. Darren is now ranked 5th in the World.
• Athletes, Fionnuala Britton, Danny Darcy, Linda Byrne and Azmera Gebrezgi will be competing in the European Athletic Cross Country Champs in Tilburg, Holland on the 11th December
• Swimmer, Kevin Stacey will be competing in the European Short Course Champs in Italy 8th-11th December
• David O’Connell – Davies Cup squad 2005

GAA Scholarship recipients from left to right Colm Munnelly (Laois), Conor Mortimer (Mayo), Brendan Egan (Sligo), Kevin Reilly (Meath), Declan Lally (Dublin) and Diarmuid Kinsella (Wexford)

Scholarship recipients from left to right Ruth Kilkenny (badminton), Rory O’Connor (rowing), Keith Halloran (fencing) and Claire Ni Bhrian (squash)

GAA Scholarship recipient Bryan Cullen (Dublin)

More information on Sports Scholarships can be obtained from http://www.dcu.ie/sportscholarships/