Search Results for 'the Beijing Olympics'

Former Galway United manager Don O’Riordan is to take over the Galway women’s FC National League side.

Another Galwegian will be heading to the Olympic Games in two weeks. Athenry's Paul Hession and Loughrea's Olive Loughnane will be competing on the track, and a third local, Tuam’s Pierce O'Callaghan, has been appointed as an international technical official for athletics.

Westmeath’s second-ever Olympian Martin Fagan (28) received a two-year ban from all competition this week after his prompt admission to doping offences.

There are just 24 hours to go before the fireworks are lit and the Beijing Olympics gets underway, propelling us into three weeks of wonder, amazement and wondering where they got those drugs from.

Around these parts we may be used to getting spoilt when it comes to exciting events planned over the summer months to keep us occupied but does it get much better than this in Kilkenny?

It’s often said that a week is a long time in politics. Can I suggest then that three weeks is an absolute eternity in football? Just a few short weeks ago, all the talk around these parts was that Galway would be a shoe in to retain their Connacht championship. The fact that they would be playing the Connacht final (assuming it is Mayo) in Pearse Stadium added to that theory because the general perception is that the seaside venue is definitely worth a few scores to the Galway men. But the pendulum has very definitely shifted in the last two matches of the national league. Galway were the form team of the league for the first five rounds, getting standing ovations from their ecstatic home supporters on a number of occasions such was the quality of their play. But after a rather slow start by Mayo in their opening rounds, they have very definitely come thundering into the equation again as serious provincial contenders after their impressive one-point victory over the up to then unbeaten Galwegians in Tuam a couple of weeks ago. Mayo followed up on that victory with a very creditable performance against the All Ireland champions in McHale Park last Sunday, where both sides took a share of the spoils.

Mullingar residents will be watching RTE's coverage of the Beijing Olympics with bated breath this weekend as local boxer John Joe Joyce contests preliminary matches tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday.

A geological phenomenon in southwest China is more than 400 kilometres of towering limestone rocks covered in vegetation. It’s a spectacular landscape. Thousands of these hills soar into the sky, weathered and carved by the wind and rain, often taking on the shape of a man fishing, an elephant drinking water, or a woman feeding her baby, or eager friendly creatures looking down at you (the Chinese are wonderful for encouraging you to look at natural shapes in caves and mountains and say; ‘use your imagination, what do you see?’). These cone-shaped wonders become in effect a ‘forest of hills’, and their beauty is doubled as they are reflected in the River Li, which winds though them like a blue silk ribbon.

Galway’s Olympic athlete, Olive Loughnane, has scooped The Irish Times/Irish Sports Council ‘Sportswoman of the Month Award’ for August after her superb performance in the 20k walk at the Beijing Olympics.

This weekend Loughrea hosts a special athletic event as part of the athletic club's 40th anniversary celebrations.