Brady seals place at World Championships

HANDBALL superstar Paul Brady had a double success last Sunday when he booked his place as the official Irish representative at the 2009 World Championships, just hours after being voted Handballer of the Year at a ceremony in Monaghan. Dual star Brady defeated Dublin"s Eoin Kennedy 21-15, 21-11 in the final of the Envirogreen Irish Nationals at Kingscourt, having earlier demolished Dessie Keegan (Mayo), Owen McKenna (Antrim) and Gavin Buggy (Wexford). Brady, who is aiming for his third successive World Championships Open Singles title in Portland, Oregon in October, admitted that he was relieved to get over the challenge of the methodical Kennedy. 'It was a tough battle as I expected,' the Mullahoran native told RTE"s Joanne Cantwell immediately after the final. 'Eoin bounced back very well from the All Ireland final [Brady defeated Kennedy 21-10, 21-4 in the Senior Singles final on March 21]. The heat in the court was intense which made it hard but I"m just glad to get through it.' Brady began the match looking uncharacteristically sluggish as Kenendy raced into an early lead. However, urged on by the huge crowd, the Cavan man eventually found his rhythm and put together a neat string of aces to close out the first game 21-15. Brady torte into a quick 3-0 lead in the second game only for Kennedy to surge 6-3 ahead. However, from there on the reigning world champion took control, dominating the front court and pinning Kennedy back with clever pass shots to run out a comfortable 21-11 winner. The Nationals attracted a record entry and were expertly hosted by the Ulster Handball Council, spearheaded by Kingscourt official Kit Finnegan. The progressive Kingscourt club hosted all of the finals on Sunday, with St Pat"s also staging matches in the earlier rounds on Saturday. Meanwhile on Saturday night, Brady was awarded the prestigious Handballer of the Year award at the annual banquet in the Hillgove Hotel in Monaghan. In other Nationals action, Michael Finnegan recorded an impressive win over Wicklow"s Michael Gregan in the round of 16 on Friday evening. Trailing 10-1 in the first game, Finnegan upped the ante and began to attack at will, killing superbly en route to a 21-17, 21-18 win. Finnegan was ousted in the quarter-final on Saturday morning by Kennedy.