Medal joy for Offaly athletes in Special Olympics Ireland Games

Fifteen athletes from Offaly won gold medals for first places at the Special Olympics Ireland Games in Dublin last weekend.

Iris Samonte from Tullamore claimed three gold medals - in 50M freestyle swimming, 4X50 freestyle relay and 25M backstroke.

Oisin Feery (200m kayaking and 500m kayaking), Moira Scott (200m kayaking and 500m kayaking), Gabrielle Hannon-Garry (4X25 freestyle relay and 25M backstroke) and Oisin Molloy (mini-javelin 8-15yrs 300g and the 25M walk) won two gold medals each.

The other gold medal winners from Offaly are as follows:

Damien Breslin (100M freestyle swimming); Aine Brophy (women's shotput, 3Kg); Jay Coogan (50m freestyle); Claire Coughlan (Connacht basketball team, Claire is a member of Athlone Special Olympics); Ryan Dunne (standing long jump); Adam Duzel (100M individual medley); Shannon Hogan (4X25 freestyle relay); Harry Kearney (4x100m relay); Oliwia Rogowska (softball throw) and Mark Sadler (bowling singles).

Overall, Team Leinster returned home with a haul of 369 medals from the 2018 Special Olympics Ireland Games in Dublin.

A total of 1,600 athletes from the four corners of Ireland took part in the Games, one of the largest and most prestigious sporting events to take place in Ireland in 2018.

More in this week's edition of the Offaly Independent.