Both the Men's and Ladies Open Singles titles at the Irish Wallball Nationals went to Galway with Martin Mulkerrins and Ciana Ní Churaoín claiming top honours in the annual showpiece at Breaffy House, Castlebar.
Both players were beaten in the final of the respective Open Singles grades in the US Nationals in Los Angeles a week earlier but bounced back with emphatic victories in the wallball (previously 'One Wall’) code.
Moycullen’s Mulkerrins (26) was a convincing 15-11, 15-6 final winner over Tyrone’s Sean Kerr, he stated that the win was scant consolation for his recent loss to Cavan’s Paul Brady in the final of the US Nationals in Los Angeles.
Mulkerrins had an excellent tournament in the States, ousting world champion Killian Carroll at the semi-final stage but a straight games loss to Brady, 13 years his senior, in the decider was a major disappointment.
"I probably was a little bit tired. I was at a conference in Sicily the week before and I flew to Los Angeles from there, it took me 35 hours to get there and it probably caught up with me but at the same time, Paul played very well.
"It was nice to come back and win the next tournament at the same time. I would take a relaxed approach to wallball, it requires different shots and you play your way into it in the early rounds and try not to make too many mistakes."
"In other years I would have played more wallball and trained more for the event, there are some good pre-Nationals warm-up tournaments around the country and I would usually play a couple of them," said Mulkerrins.
"This year I only played one, the Mount Talbot tournament in Roscommon, and I lost in the final to Sean Kerr but I had been focusing on four-wall at the time because of the US Nationals.
"I had to play conservatively in the early rounds in Breaffy, I couldn’t go for the angles on serves and things like that, but I began to find my rhythm and the final went well for me."
Mulkerrins defeated Tipperary's James Prentice in the semi-final, with Kerr seeing off Daren Doherty of Monaghan.
In the Ladies Open, Armagh’s Megan McCann produced a seismic upset when she toppled defending champion Martina McMahon of Limerick in the semi-final but the youngster was well-beaten in the final (15-12, 15-7) by the excellent Ní Churaoín, whose brother Fiontán plays midfield for the Tribesmen’s senior footballers.
Ní Churaoín came though in extra time in a pulsating semi-final against Kilkenny's Ciara Mahon.
There was further joy for Galway in the Boys 19&U division when Peter Donohue from Inis Mor came out on top against Wexford's Adam Walsh.
