Offaly Olympians return home with heads held very high

THERE may have been no medals but Offaly's Olympians will be returning home with their heads held very high after doing their county proud in the great Paris event last week.

Rugby players, Jordan Conroy and Megan Burns (both former members of Tullamore Rugby Club) saw their dreams of glory in the sevens competition end in the early days of the Olympics.

Burns played very well for the womens' sevens team as they lost to Australia in the quarter-final and were then beaten by Great Britain in a play off for seventh-eight position – the Killurin woman scored a try in a 28-12 defeat.

Conroy and the Irish mens' sevens team provided one of the hard luck story of the games as they were very unlucky to lose 19-15 to Fiji in the quarter-final. Flying winger Conroy had played very well in the group stages but was injured for the quarter-finals and play offs for placings as Ireland finished sixth overall.

Boxing has been making the headlines for the wrong reasons but Tullamore boxer Grainne Walsh showed what the Olympics is all about as she competed to the best of her ability and was so thrilled at making the Games. Walsh lost to Hungarian, Anna Luca Hamori in a 4-1 split decision in her first round 66kg outing.

This left Offaly's medal hopes resting on golfer Shane Lowry, cyclist Megan Armitage and show jumper Darragh Kenny – Belmont man Kenny was a back up and didn't get to ride.

Lowry has spoken with great passion about the Olympics and representing his country and county there. The Clara man bowed out of contention early and finished tied 26^th on 5 under par: 14 shots behind the winner, American Scottie Scheffler.

Shinrone woman, Megan Armitage provided one of the performances of the games. Armitage only took up cycling seriously during the 2020 Covid lockdown and she had a great race to finish 35^th on an energy sapping 158km course. She was up near the front of the peleton early on, asking questions of others but got caught on the wrong side of a crash inside the last 50km and this ended her medals hopes.