This article is from page 14 of the 2007-10-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
CLARE County Council is to pay tribute to one of the county’s most decorated sporting heroes.
Gymnast William Loughnane from Knockanovra, Clooney/Quin won six gold medals and one bronze at the Special Olympics World Games in Shanghai, China last week, and the local authority has agreed to pay him the ultimate local hour — a civic reception on November 12.
Loughnane also won bronze in the vault beating stiff competition from Russian gymnasts.
Councillors Pat Hayes (FF) and Pat Daly (FF) proposed that the man who won gold for Ireland in five cat- egories — including rings, pommel horse, parallel bars, horizontal bars and floor — be honoured.
“It is a huge achievement for Wil- liam and his family, continuing on from his success in the 2004 Olym- pics in Dublin,” said Cllr Daly.
William’s medal haul at the 2007 games equals the number of med- als he won at the 2004 games, which were held in Ireland.
William’s parents, Liam and Rose joined him in China and were among
a large Irish representation at the games.
Cllr Daly and Hayes also paid trib- ute Patrick O’Leary from Inagh who was a member of the five-a-side soc- om cre b eee
The team just missed out on a medal as they were beaten in the third place play-off by Mauritania from Africa.
The Irish contingent in Shanghai consisted of 141 athletes, 55 coaches, 200 volunteers and over 400 family members.
William qualified for the games in Belfast just over a year ago. Since then he concentrated on his prepara-
tion for the challenge in China.
The champion gymnast hopes to coach gymnastics himself in the fu- ture and puts a large part of his suc- cess down to St Clare’s School in Ennis where he learned his trade as a gymnast.