Galway's Martin Mulkerrins returned to winning ways in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the weekend when winning his fifth Pro-Stop handball title.
The Moycullen ace, who started the season in September 2022 as the ninth seed on the R48 World Players of Handball circuit climbed to the No 1 position by January 2023.
However, a tie-breaker defeat in the final in Montana at the start of February was then followed two weeks later by a semi-final defeat in Houston, which saw Mulkerrins relinquish his first place seeding to Mexican Lucho Cordova.
Now as the season draws to a close there is only only one stop remaining, Salt Lake City in early May, and Mulkerrins, still ranked No 2 kept his hopes of finishing No 1 alive by winning last weekend.
Interestingly, in the head-to-head this season Mulkerrins is 2-1 up on his Mexican opponent, so it is all to play for, and players will also be looking ahead to the World Championship May 25-27 in Minnesota.