Posted on: 22 December 2014
Sport at Trinity reached another milestone recently when two students from the College’s National Institute for the Intellectual Disability (NIID) were amongst the 61 Sports Scholarships announced for the 2014/15 academic year.
Swimmer Maeve Philips has won gold, silver and bronze medals at European and World levels competing for the Irish Down Syndrome Team and Fiachra Costello from the Whitehall Colmcilles Club in Dublin, won Minor Football Championship and Minor Hurling League honours with the North Dublin based Club. The awards were presented by NIID Champion and former Irish International Rugby Player, Hugo MacNeill. Both Maeve and Fiachra will avail of the Sport Scholarship support services along with their fellow recipients which include fitness testing, strength & conditioning, nutrition and time management.
Speaking at the presentation, Hugo commended Trinity on the sporting opportunities provided to students of the NIID Programme saying: “I take great pride in the achievements and development of the NIID students. The inclusion of sport as an integral part of the programme has introduced the students to new opportunities and I am truly delighted to support the Sports Scholarship awards and congratulate both Maeve and Fiachra.”
Twenty seven Sports Scholarships were awarded in 12 different sports including Commonwealth Games athletes Victoria Mullin (Air Pistol Shooting) and Prakash Vijayanath (Badminton) as well as International Kayaker Tom Brennan and recently announced Sky Sports Athlete Mentor, Aoife McDermott (Basketball). Two American students, Christine Ganser and Jennifer Morabito were also acknowledged as Victory Sports Scholarship recipients, a programme which enables them to study a Masters Programme in the Business School, compete for Trinity and also co-ordinate community development initiatives through basketball.
The current outstanding performances of Trinity Rugby reflect the talents of the 30 students from the club being awarded a Sports Scholarship. Captain and 3rd Year BESS student, Patrick Lavelle, was also presented with the inaugural Trevor West Sports Scholarship, in recognition of his work in College sport on and off the field.
Speaking at the event, Head of Sport at Trinity, Michelle Tanner highlighted: “Sport at Trinity is in a strong position and this evening’s awards are testament to this. We are about to launch a Strategy for Sport that maps out a new and exciting journey for the development of sport in College. In this we are embracing change, making brave decisions and challenging the norm but the end result will better position sport alongside Trinity’s academic strengths, as Ireland’s premier university.”
A full list of Sports Scholarship recipients is available on www.tcd.ie/sport
