One of Laois’s smallest primary schools, Mayo NS, has, over the last two years, become a hotbed for badminton in Ireland.
Led by students Aoife and Daire O’Sullivan, who are members of Carlow Lawn Tennis Club, they have passed on their enthusiasm for the sport to their classmates.
The Mayo NS team has been coached by Aoife and Daire’s granddad Tom Smyth over the last two seasons.
The senior end of the school began training in December and boys and girls teams were chosen in January to represent them.
On February 1, both boys and girl’s teams travelled to Baldoyle Badminton Centre in Dublin for the Leinster finals.
Here, they competed against schools from Louth, Dublin, Carlow, Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford and Kilkenny.
The competition format is paired doubles with two games in each match and the combined score deciding the overall result.
The Mayo girls’ team of Aoife O’Sullivan, Lexie Willoughby, Caoimhe Brennan, Carrie Brennan and Sophie Dowling, after playing three games, qualified for the second round but unfortunately missed out on a semi-final spot only on points difference.
The boys’ team of captain Daire O’Sullivan and the Curran brothers Darragh and Daniel along with their cousins MJ and Eoin Dowling were Leinster Champions on the day.
To put their achievement in perspective, the enrolement in Mayo is just 29 pupils while the school they defeated in the final, Adamstown Central Educate Together School from Dublin, have over 450 pupils.
The boys now go forward to the All-Ireland Finals next Wednesday, February 28 as top seeds in Leinster.
The boys are expecting a big challenge on the day from badminton strongholds in Donegal, Cork and Clare.
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