He may have held every major record in the game coming into this week but Cavan’s Paul Brady has now added two more after he claimed a record sixth open singles title at the World Handball Championships.
At 45, Brady is now also the oldest player ever to win the Worlds – for context, the closest to him in age in the last four of either the men’s or women’s grades was his final opponent, 33-year-old Diarmaid Nash of Clare. And the Mullahoran native did it the hard way, dropping the first game and coming from 5-2 down to win the tiebreaker.
Tuamgraney’s Nash was outstanding in winning the opener 15-7 and although he dropped the second 15-8, the 2022 All-Ireland senior singles champion led early in the third before Brady found his groove.
“I feel relieved and obviously elated. It’s been a long week, the body came through it and I’m obviously delighted,” said Brady.
“I played with the same principles I always play with, don’t give up and fight to the bitter end. I kind of knew he was going to bring something different, coming down off a big performance yesterday can be difficult and people were very emotional yesterday, that’s why I got out of the centre, I didn’t want to get sucked into that.
“You’ve got to get up again, that’s the nature of a World Championships obviously. You have to get up again and again and again and consistently play well and you’ll get punished for any error, as happened today.
“I didn’t execute my game plan in the first game but thankfully I got it going after that.”
Brady had made a sensational return to competitive action when he entered the All-Ireland senior singles earlier this year, eventually losing the final on an injury default when well in front. This latest win more than made up for it, however.
“When people didn’t think it was possible that I could do it, obviously that was a motivator as well. The first one was good because you’re trying to make it, this one you’re a bit more relaxed, obviously you’ve cemented your status in the sport.
“I still believe that on any given day I can beat anyone in the sport and I wanted to prove that to myself and let’s just say a few other people as well.”
Earlier, Galway’s Ciana Ní Churraoin delivered a brilliant performance to defeat 2018 world champion Martina McMahon of Limerick in a tense and closely-contested women’s open singles final.
Ní Churraoin, from the Micheál Breathnachs club, stunned McMahon with a 15-11 win in game one and opened a commanding lead in the second, only to be overhauled and lose 14-15.
But Ní Churaoin was not to be denied in the tiebreaker as she came through an 11-8 winner.
The 28-year-old right-hander, a sports psychologist by trade, dug deep after squandering a hard-earned lead in game two, with her retrieving and flat kills, especially in the right corner, proving the difference in a high-quality contest against the Broadford lefty.
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