Huge influx of athletes to descend on Athlone

UP to 15,000 people - including several thousand young athletes - are expected to flood Athlone over the course of the next two weekends, as the HSE Community Games August National Finals & Festival 2009 comes to town. After successfully hosting the first weekend of the finals in May, Athlone IT is again the base for thousands of young athletes from all around the country as they bid to become All-Ireland champions in a wide variety of sporting competitions. This weekend's action begins on Saturday morning with swimming, gymnastics, pitch and putt, and hard-court tennis all taking place from 9am, while the opening ceremony also takes place at Athlone IT on Friday evening from 6.30pm. Other sports taking place this weekend include Gaelic football, soccer, olympic handball, judo and hockey. An estimated 15,000 athletes and spectators are expected to converge on Athlone and its surrounding areas over the course of both weekends, the second of which takes place from August 21-23, for one of the biggest national sporting events to ever hit the town. A total of almost 140 Westmeath based athletes will take part in the festivities over the coming weekends, with 65 participants from the Lake County entered this weekend including the highly rated Ballymahon Road girls under-16 hockey team and the Beechpark/Coosan Variety Group, the latter of whom are bidding to retain the All-Ireland title they won last year at Mosney. Over 500,000 young people from across Ireland take part in the HSE Community Games per annum and this is the 41st year of the HSE Community Games making it an essential part of the Irish summer. With almost 1,000 young athletes being accomodated this weekend in the student accomodation adjacent to Athlone IT, Gordon Brett, Sport & Recreation Manager at AIT, said Athlone's central location has allowed more and more supporters to attend the games this year. "The first weekend in May was a great success and we received great feedback from athletes, their parents and the Community Games about the way the event was managed. We are scheduled to host the event for four years and so far it's been a huge success and we expect the next two weekends to be likewise," said Brett. The decision to move this year's event to Athlone marked the end of a thirty-five year relationship with Mosney, Co Meath, where over 8,000 children from all over the country have competed annually in the Games since its inception. In addition to providing the sports facilities, the new venue will also provide 2,500 bed spaces, hosting all participants in one location. AIT's high-tech sports facilities include an eight-lane Olympic-standard athletics track, as well as a full size FIFA 2-star astro-turf soccer pitch and a full-size GAA pitch, which can accommodate a mixture of events including soccer, hockey, Gaelic football and hurling. Competitions will also take place in the institute's multi-purpose centre, which contains a basketball court, four badminton courts, two volleyball courts, indoor soccer and a contemporary fitness suite. (see page 31 for more on the Community Games).