It’s not every day that Laois sends an athlete to the Olympic Games.
In June, Team Ireland announced the official Women’s and Men’s Sevens squads to compete in Paris this summer, and Portarlington’s Alanna Fitzpatrick was one of the elite few listed.
In honour of her incredible achievement, Portarlington Rugby Club have announced they will hold an event in recognition of Alanna’s remarkable success.
The Olympian will be at the Lea Road Rugby Club on Wednesday, July 10 at 7pm.
“We have an Olympic flag that we will raise in honour of Alanna’s achievement,” the club said.
“There will be a presentation and event after the Olympics. This event is just an opportunity for us to wish her good luck and acknowledge her achievements.”
The Ireland Women’s team qualified for the Olympics by way of a 10-5 victory over Fiji in the 2023 World Rugby Seven Series last summer.
It is their first to ever qualify, since Rugby Sevens became an Olympic sport at Rio 2016.
The Men’s team made it to Tokyo 2020, but failed to get out of their group and will be hoping for an improved performance in Paris.
The have made remarkable strides in the past four years, and now find themselves ranked second in the world
Like the Men’s team, the Ireland Women’s team have made huge bounds forward in the past few years, winning their first ever rugby sevens victory on the world stage at the Perth SVNS in January.
This came just six months after Alanna made her international debut at Rugby European Sevens Championship Series in Hamburg, Germany, an occasion she crowned with a try.
The Olympic Rugby Sevens competition runs from Wednesday, July 24 to Tuesday 30 2024 at the home of French rugby, the 80,000-seat Stade de France.
Alanna and her team will take on Great Britain at 2.30pm on Sunday, July 28, and later that day at 6pm they will face South Africa.
The final group game is the following day at 1.30pm, and will be Ireland’s biggest test when they take on the mighty Australia, ranked second in the world, five places ahead of Ireland.
Alanna will join the short list of Laois Olympians, which also includes fellow Portarlington athlete, Shane Ryan, Portlaoise’s Anne Keenan Buckley, and Emo’s Frank Moore.
