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Displaying items by tag: Minister for Sport Leo Varadkar

Irish kayakers will make their debut at the Special Olympics World Games in Athens this summer.
They will be part of a 126-strong team representing Ireland at the games, which was celebrated by new Minister for Sport Leo Varadkar at the Convention Centre in Dublin this week.
Kayaker Shaun Bradley from Letterkenny, when asked if his was a dangerous sport, told The Irish Times: “Not really if you’re good at swimming.”
Minister Varadkar said everyone could benefit from the event. The Government has allocated €250,000 for the Special Olympics World Games and €1.5 million in 2011 for Special Olympics Ireland.
More than 7,500 athletes will compete across 12 sports, supported by 2,500 coaches and thousands of volunteers from 185 countries, at the games in Athens from 25 June to 4 July.

Irish kayakers will make their debut at the Special Olympics World Games in Athens this summer.

They will be part of a 126-strong team representing Ireland at the games, which was celebrated by new Minister for Sport Leo Varadkar at the Convention Centre in Dublin this week.

Kayaker Shaun Bradley from Letterkenny, when asked if his was a dangerous sport, told The Irish Times: “Not really if you’re good at swimming.”

Minister Varadkar said everyone could benefit from the event. The Government has allocated €250,000 for the Special Olympics World Games and €1.5 million in 2011 for Special Olympics Ireland.

More than 7,500 athletes will compete across 12 sports, supported by 2,500 coaches and thousands of volunteers from 185 countries, at the games in Athens from 25 June to 4 July.

Published in Kayaking

Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Yacht Race Information

The biennial Dun Laoghaire to Dingle race is a 320-miles race down to the east coast of Ireland, across the south coast and into Dingle harbour in County Kerry.

The race is organised by the National Yacht Club.

It never fails to offer a full range of weather, wind and tide to the intrepid entrants, ranging from a 32ft cruiser to a 79ft all-out racer.

Three divisions are available to enter: cruiser (boats equipped with furlers), racing (the bulk of the fleet) and also two-handed.

D2D Course change overruled

In 2019, the organisers considered changing the course to allow boats to select routes close to shore by removing the requirement to go outside Islands and Lighthouses en route, but following input from regular participants, the National Yacht Club decided to stick with the tried and tested course route in order to be fair to large and smaller boats and to keep race records intact.

RORC Points Calendar

The 2019 race was the first edition to form part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club “RORC” calendar for the season. This is in addition to the race continuing as part of the ISORA programme. 

D2D Course record time

Mick Cotter’s 78ft Whisper established the 1 day and 48 minutes course record for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in 2009 and that time stood until 2019 when Cotter returned to beat his own record but only just, the Dun Laoghaire helmsman crossing the line in Kerry to shave just 20 seconds off his 2009 time.