Jan 12
8
South Donegal surfers well represented in Sports Star awards
Maedb McCloskey Richard Fitzgerald Conor Maguire Easkey Britton and Shane Smyth (Photo - Briohny Fitzgerald)
Five south Donegal surfers have received nominations for the prestigious Donegal Sports Stars Awards which will be held at a ceremony on January 27th.
Richard Fitzgerald & Conor Maguire both from Bundoran, Easkey Britton from Rossnowlagh and Maedb McCloskey from Ballyshannon have been nominated in the “Surfing” category whilst Shane Smyth from Bundoran has been nominated in the “Appreciation” category for his voluntary work as Press Officer on the recent European Surfing Championships event held in the seaside town.
Both Richard and Easkey had an impressive year in 2011 progressing into the final stages of Eurosurf 2011 competing with surfers from 12 other European nations with Easkey gaining international recognition through nomination for Billabong XXL awards. Conor and Maedb both travelled to Peru to represent their country in the 2011 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship in May.Speaking about his nomination Shane Smyth, Eurosurf Bundoran Press Officer commented “it is an absolute honour for me to be nominated and a shock to be honest. A group of very dedicated individuals took on the staging of Eurosurf last year – as a lover of surfing and the Bundoran community it was something I was delighted to help out with. I’m privileged to be nominated among some great and deserving people in these awards.”The award ceremony takes place at the Silver Tassie Hotel in Letterkenny at the end of the month and has a total of 36 different categories with 156 nominees.Fellow Bundoran native Richard Fitzgerald said “I’m thrilled to be nominated for this award – 2011 was a great year for Irish surfing with the big wave competition in Mullaghmore and then topped by having the European Surfing Championships on our home turf in Bundoran. I’m very lucky that I get to work at doing something I really love and it’s great to be recognised with this nomination – I’ve got tough competition in this category with Easkey, Maedb and Conor – whoever wins, it is great for Irish surfing to be recognised.”Eileesh Buckley, Chairperson of the Irish Surfing Association added “It’s great to see our national surfing representatives gaining recognition in their local communities. Easkey and Richie have represented Ireland at the highest levels over the years both as individuals and as members of national teams. Meadb McCloskey and Conor Maguire are 2 outstanding junior surfers who represented Ireland at the World Junior championships in 2011, with Meadb overcoming a head-injury during the trip to complete participation in her first international event. Meanwhile Shane Smyth was a stand-out volunteer member of the Eurosurf organising committee putting in endless hours on promotion of the event and coordination with local supporters and sponsors, without his dedicated efforts Eurosurf Bundoran would not have had the profile it had, or have been the success it was. On behalf of the Irish Surfing Association I’d like to congratulate all 5 on their nominations for the Donegal Sports Star Awards”
