Shane Mallon wins Overall award as Leitrim Sports Star Awards honours county's best and brightest sporting heroes

The best and brightest of Leitrim Sport was honoured on Saturday evening in The Landmark Hotel in Carrick-on-Shannon as Bornacoola's Shane Mallon took home the top gong when he was named the Overall winner of the Leitrim Sports Star Awards for 2022.

The Bornacoola man, currently on the books of Connacht Rugby, beat off some incredibly tough competition to win the Award on foot of his superb performances in an Ireland jersey as the Irish U20 team completed the grand slam to win the 2022 Six Nations U20 title for only the third time.

Special guest Jonny Cooper made a big impression on the audience in his chat with MC John Lynch as the seven time All-Ireland winner talked about the challenges he faced during his career, recalling some personal highs and lows in a talk that kept the audience spellbound.

Leitrim stay top in Allianz NFL Division 4 after hard fought victory over London in Ruislip

LONDON 1-15 LEITRIM 3-12

There was a wide spread of award winning with angling, soccer, gaelic games, athletics and volleyball all being recognised in the Awards organised by the Leitrim Sports Partnership. It was the first time the awards had been held since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and it proved a big hit with the large crowd who attended.

Kiltubrid and Leitrim Ladies star Michelle Guckian won the Senior star award while in the Junior category, Manorhamilton's Eanna Clancy (Soccer) and Eslin's Charlie Richards (Angling) shared the award for their achievements.

Aughnasheelin manager Terence Reynolds won the Coach of the Year award while St Mary's Kiltoghert had a double as they claimed the Club of the Year title and the Volunteer of the Year award which was won by Maureen Diffley.

The All-Ireland Inter-county winning Leitrim team held off stiff competition to win the Team of the Year award while the Drumshanbo Vocational School's Aidan Shannon won the School Teacher of the Year Award. Ballinamore Area Community Games U10 gaelic football team won the Juvenile Team of the Year award.

Ballinamore's Patricia Griffin was a very popular winner of the Hall of Fame award, creating a little bit of history as she joined her husband Padraig as the first husband and wife team to pick up the award.

Aisling Quinn won the Leitrim Observer sponsored Unsung Hero Award while the Special Achievement Award for 2022 went to Ricki Wynne who set a new world record for the amount of metres ascended and descended in 24 hours when he ran up and down Croagh Patrick 15 times last year.

Not much thought for player welfare

THE LAST POINT

There was also Special Achievement awards for a few sporting stars who missed out on awards during the pandemic with Muireann Devaney, Dearbhaile Beirne, the Glencar Manorhamilton Ladies team and Isobel Oakes seeing their great achievements honoured.

Full pictorial coverage on www.leitrimobserver.ie and the Leitrim Observer during the week.