John Coggeran, Kilglass, Roscommon in action during the oneills.com World Wallball Championships at UL Sport Arena. Photo by Stephen Marken/Sportsfile
By Paul Fitzpatrick
There were mixed fortunes for the Irish players in the opening round of the Open Singles at the oneills.com World Wallball Championships at the University of Limerick, with two of the home contenders bowing out.
Wexford duo Mark Doyle and Joe Devereux fell to American Johnson Gonzalez and Team UK star Christian Blackaby respectively. Doyle, who is studying in Minnesota on a handball scholarship and returned home for this event, took the first game 21-9 but dropped the second 21-17 and was edged out in an 11-9 tiebreaker.
Also out of luck was Kilkenny’s Shane Dunne, who won the first game 21-18 against American Arthur Sayed but dropped the next two (21-20, 11-8).
Meanwhile, Devereux was beaten 21-14, 21-13 by the rangy Englishman. There was better luck for Cormac Finn of Sligo, one of Ireland’s official representatives in the Open Doubles, who advanced to the quarter-final of the singles with a thrilling win over Basque Mikel Beldarrain.
It was an emotional win for Finn (21), whose grandfather and biggest supporter Padraig Finn sadly passed away on the morning of the game.
The Basque won the opener 21-5 but Finn found his range to force a tiebreaker with a 21-10 win in game two. Beldarrain led 10-6 in the deciding set but Finn, by now playing an all-out attacking game, turned it around for a memorable 11-10 victory.
Elsewhere, American Julio Carlos had a comfortable victory over Moldovan Gheorge Becciv (21-3, 21-4) while Palestine’s Mohamad Mansi defeated England’s Dan Grant, also in a close tiebreaker.
Meanwhile, Ireland has its first world champion after Limerick’s Martina McMahon won the ‘small ball’ Open Singles division against USA’s Myohwa Hwee in straight games.
The ‘small ball’ game is primarily played in New York; the ‘big ball’ form of wallball is the dominant code and represents 90% of the grades this week. The brilliant McMahon is among the favourites in the big ball Open Singles also.
Number one seed Conor McElduff is in action today (Tuesday) at 4.30pm against Mansi. The other round of 16 matches include Tyrone’s Paul Donnelly versus Basque Lur Ziarrusta, Armagh young gun Fiachra Ó Dúill against Julio Carlos, with English number one Luke Thomson taking on Arthur Sayed.
Earlier this morning, Finn's run came to an end as he lost 21-20, 21-20 to American number one Tywan Cook. It was a superb showing from the Ballymote right-hander, who came out shooting and played arguably the best handball of his career in building up a big lead in game one before Cook, an icon of American handball, hunted him down and came through by a wafer-thin margin in both games.
"I knew he had the willpower and the capabilty to push me me and he did that," said Cook.
"He jumped on me, he was up 13-0, but I think because I am so experienced, I am able to navigate through games."
Cook changed his approach, keeping the ball higher and denying a red hot Finn offensive opportunities.
"Experience won that game," he said, "not skill."