Handball heroes on top of the world

Paul Fitzpatrick Sports Editor Paul Brady and Michael Finnegan ensured that Co Cavan continues to dominate on the world handball stage by overcoming adversity to win the two most prestigious awards in the game at the World Championships in Portland, Oregon last weekend. Struggling with a nasty leg injury which threatened to rule him out of the tournament, Brady stormed to succeess in the Open Singles, defeating Texan Allan Garner 11-7 in a tense tiebreaker in the decider. Meanwhile, with Brady restricted to singles only because of his injury, Kingscourt's Michael Finnegan teamed up with Dublin's Eoin Kennedy to come through three tough rounds to win the Open Doubles title, beating Robbie McCarthy and Brian Carroll (Westmeath/Meath) in the final on a 21-18, 21-6 scoreline. "It's taken a while to sink in, particularly because I've been in so much pain since the final," said Brady, who suffered severe damage to his quad three weeks ago. "The injury has really taken its toll on the rest of my body and my next goal is to deal with getting physically right again." Brady spent three years preparing for the World Championships (which drew 1,000 entries), but the injury he suffered cast a major doubt over his participation. "I couldn't train for two weeks and my confidence was very brittle," explained Brady. "I played one training game a few days prior to the championship, but mentally it was very difficult to remain focused on the games and not the injury." The 30-year-old opened the defence of his world title against American Eric Hilgren, and while his movement looked visibly restricted, Brady managed to pull of an emphatic victory. "I suppose in the first game I was trying to adjust to the heavy strapping and I felt the pain-killing injections wearing off, but thankfully I pulled through," said Brady. "The pain persisted in all of the games and I began to struggle physically with playing daily so I received more injections and by the time the final came, my body was running on sheer adrenalin," he said. The final was not without drama. In the first game, the Breffni man recorded a 21-14 win, but Garner displayed some awesome killing to force a tiebreaker. In the decider, at 3-0 up, Brady was forced to take an injury time out after colliding with the side-wall. Playing through severe pain, he managed to finish out the game and secure an 11-7 victory, and fulfil his three-in-a-row mission. In the doubles event, Finnegan, who will surely now go down as one of the greatest doubles players the sport has seen, played some of the best handball of his career in his novel partnership with Kennedy and having overcome an early scare in the final, the Cavan-Dublin duo dominated the second set. Main pic: Brady and Finnegan get in some last-minute practice in Portland while (inset) Brady shoots left-handed against Garner in the Singles final.