This year’s winners of the Martin Sheridan Bursary Awards, which are given to outstanding young athletes in Mayo every year to help with their training and athletic progression, have been announced.
The overall winner for 2023 was Clodagh Gill, a hugely promising young athlete from Crossmolina who received the main prize of €3,000 at a ceremony in Bohola on Tuesday.
The runners-up were Oisín Joyce, a talented javelin thrower from Ballinrobe, and Thomas Devaney, a highly skilled athlete from Islandeady .
Mayo native, Martin Sheridan, one of the stars of that 1908 Olympic Games in London.
They both received bursaries of €1,000 and the funding is designed to assist in the cost of education, training, travel and equipment.
Joe O’Neill, the chair of the Martin Sheridan Bursary committee congratulated the three winners and said they were amazed by the standard of young sports people in the county.
The awards, which are held to remember Ireland’s greatest ever Olympian, Bohola native Martin Sheridan, are run with the support of Mayo County Council and the Western People.
4 December 2022; Clodagh Gill of Moy Valley AC, Mayo, competing in the girls u17 4000m race during the 123.ie Novice & Uneven Age Cross Country Championships at St Catherines AC in Cork. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile *** NO REPRODUCTION FEE ***
The bursaries were presented by Cllr Seamus Weir, the Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, who said the funding will assist the trio as they ‘continue to represent their county and country with distinction’.
Clodagh Gill, who finished fourth in the 3,000m final at the 2022 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival (EYOF) last year, praised the support of Moy Valley Athletics Club in Ballina, including coach Phillip Finnerty and chairman Sean Gallagher.
Ballinrobe teenager Oisín Joyce, national record holder for the javelin, with special guest Joe Canning at the Mayo Sports Stars Awards. Picture: Michael Donnelly
Thomas Devaney (far right) after winning European Gold
Oisín Joyce (18), a Ballinrobe Community School pupil and Lake District AC member and Thomas Devaney (21), who is a student teacher at the Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, said they were delighted with their prizes.
Oisín recently won gold in the senior boys’ javelin at the Schools All Ireland in Tullamore, while Thomas won a gold medal in the Under-23 men’s 8,000m team event at the 2021 European Cross Country Championships and his career has continued to prosper.
*For the full story see next Tuesday’s Western People