Paul Brady of Kingscourt, Cavan, celebrates after his victory in the Open Men's final during day nine of the oneills.com World 4-Wall Championships at Croke Park. Photo by Stephen Marken/Sportsfile
By Paul Fitzpatrick
In front of a sell-out crowd at the National Handball Centre in Croke Park, the Men’s and Ladies Open Singles finals at the oneills.com World Championships delivered a pair of epics, with one player winning her first world title and another his sixth on a historic day.
First up was 28-year-old Galway woman Ciana Ní Churraoin, who came in as slight underdog against 2018 world champion Martina McMahon of Limerick but ground out an outstanding victory.
The Micheál Breathnachs clubwoman stunned McMahon with a 15-11 win in game one and opened a commanding lead in the second, only to be overhauled and lose 14-15.
But Ní Churaoin was not to be denied in the tiebreaker as she came through an 11-8 winner.
The right-hander, a sports psychologist by trade, dug deep after squandering a hard-earned lead in game two, with her retrieving and flat kills, especially in the right corner, proving the difference in a high-quality contest against the Broadford lefty.
But while the ladies final was tremendous, the men’s was viewed as the main event given Paul Brady was gunning for an unprecedented sixth title. And the 45-year-old got the job done the hard way against the in-form Diarmaid Nash of Clare, who played superbly but just came up short.
Nash came out shooting and took the first 15-7, dictating the terms. Brady raced into an 8-0 lead in game two but had to weather another storm from Nash – who combined aggressive attacking play with precise defence – before closing it out 15-8.
In the tiebreaker, Brady led 2-0, Nash reeled off five points unanswered but the Cavan legend was not to be denied as he took the win on an 11-5 scoreline after a match fitting for the occasion.
“I feel relieved and obviously elated. It’s been a long week, the body came through it and I’m obviously delighted,” said Brady.
“I played with the same principles I always play with, don’t give up and fight to the bitter end. I kind of knew he was going to bring something different, coming down off a big performance yesterday (semi-final win against Martin Mulkerins) can be difficult and people were very emotional yesterday, that’s why I got out of the centre, I didn’t want to get sucked into that.
“You’ve got to get up again, that’s the nature of a World Championships obviously. You have to get up again and again and again and consistently play well and you’ll get punished for any error, as happened today.
“I didn’t execute my game plan in the first game but thankfully I got it going after that.”
Brady had made a sensational return to competitive action when he entered the All-Ireland Senior Singles earlier this year, eventually losing the final on an injury default when well in front. This latest win more than made up for it, however.
“When people didn’t think it was possible that I could do it, obviously that was a motivator as well. The first one was good because you’re trying to make it, this one you’re a bit more relaxed, obviously you’ve cemented your status in the sport.
“I still believe that on any given day I can beat anyone in the sport and I wanted to prove that to myself and let’s just say a few other people as well.”