CYCLING: Tributes have been paid to the 1978 Rás winner Seamus Kennedy, who passed away this week after a battle with illness.
“I never raced against him, but I got to know him at various events and especially at the world championships,” said former world number one Seán Kelly. “He was always travelling there in the past 10, 15 years, as part of the group of Irish supporters. It was very sad to hear that he wasn’t well.”
An Post Rás race director Dermot Dignam saw Kennedy race on many occasions, not least when he won the 1978 Rás. “Outside of being a great racing cyclist, he was also a gentleman,” he said yesterday. “He won the Rás as well as everything else worth winning. In his heyday he was one of our most successful riders.”
Kennedy, who took various national titles, continued to race strongly long past the age when many others retired.
He will be brought to his family home in Kilcloon, between Dunboyne and Maynooth, this evening, with the funeral mass being held at 11am on Thursday in Kilcloon Church.
