GAA President Jarlath Burns has become the latest leading official to suggest that handball could become an Olympic sport.
Speaking in his address at the opening ceremony of the World Wallball Championships at the University of Limerick yesterday, Burns revealed that he was part of a GAA delegation to the Olympic Games recently, part of whose brief was to explore the possibilities of including Gaelic games at the Games in the future.
“One of the reasons we were over at the Olympics was to start negotiations about the possibility that we could get some of our Gaelic games in the Olympics,” he said.
“One of the events that I was at was skateboarding and I did watch the break dancing and I was thinking to myself, if handball cannot hold its own there…”
Burns was speaking at the launch of the first-ever standalone Wallball (formerly One-Wall) World Championships, which have attracted almost 900 entries from Ireland, the USA, Canada, Japan, the UK, the Basque Country and France among other nations.
“Although I played Gaelic football all my life, handball is the one sport I played every day, as a student in school and then as a teacher and then as a principal, going out on lunchtime duty.
“It made the lunchtime duty seem a little bit shorter by playing handball with the pupils and many times I came home with ripped trousers and suit as a result of playing!
“This is a first, this is an incredible experience for all of us in the GAA because this is the first time we have split the wallball from the rest of the competition and already we can see how much of a success it has been, 900 competitors from all across the world.
“Since handball has come under Coaching and Games with Shane Flanagan and the rest of the staff and under David Britton’s leadership and that of Conor (McDonnell, GAA Handball President), I have to say it has really flourished.
There were 12,000 children introduced to handball this summer as part of the Cúl Camps,” he said.
The tournament served off yesterday but will really get into full swing today, with the commencement of the Open grades.
Number one seed Conor McElduff of Tyrone takes to the court tomorrow (Tuesday), when he takes on the winner of Dan Grant (UK) and New York-based Palestinian left-hander Mohamad Mansi.
In the Ladies Open, Tyrone’s Eilise McCrory and Clare Conway are also in action, with Armagh footballer Megan McCann having received a bye to the last eight tomorrow (Wednesday).
