One to Watch
Our one to watch series is dedicated to shining a light on the next generation of Irish athletes excelling in their field. For a nation of 5 million people our athletes continue to impact their chosen discipline on a European and global stage.
Do you know of an Irish athlete between the ages of 16-23 who deserve to be featured? Email thesidelinelive@gmail.com
The 19 year old star has taken the Irish athletics world by storm. Just yesterday the teenage sensation became the fastest Irishwoman of all time at 60m, 200m, 300m and 400m distances Rhasidat began her athletics career at Tallaght athletics club and has been tipped as the future of Irish athletics for the last number of years. In 2018 she was a member of the 4x100m IAFF World U20 Championship silver medal relay team, and took gold at the 2021 European U20 Championships in Talinn May 2022
On the latest One to Watch we take a look at a young athlete with a big performance earlier this week. Sam Prendgergast kicked three penalties and three conversions, including the penalty to put Ireland ahead of rivals England during the Under 20 Six Nations Summer Series Sam’s older brother Cian is currently playing with Connacht and made his first International senior start vs the All Blacks last week. Sam is still U19 and with impressive performances during schools rugby and training with L
Lisa who only turned 20 yesterday, celebrated her birthday in style qualifying for the quarter-finals of the light middleweight division at the World championships in Turkey The talented boxer also plays intercounty football with Roscommon. While her sister Aoife, who is also competing in Turkey, represented Ireland at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic May 2022
Con's younger brother recorded 3-1 in last weekend's win over Clontarf in the Dublin Senior Championship. *August 2022 Niall who already played in the O'Byrne cup for Dessie Farrell is one to watch as Dublin look for strength up front to compliment his brother’s talent
Aisling O’Neill made her @dublin_camogie debut in 2022 under manager Adrian O’Sullivan and finished her first senior inter county season with an All Star Nomination following in the footsteps of 2017 debut all star nominee Hannah Hegarty A scoring machine, O’Neill bagged 1-05 (2f) in her opening league debut vs Offaly and continued this scoring run while studying for her leaving cert
The 20 year old sprinter with a 36 hours he will never forget! 2nd place (behind the Olympic Champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs) with an automatic final qualification recording 10.20 seconds. Being the first Irish man to ever reach a 100m European final Final performance: 6th place and National record The Dundalk native is the fastest man in Irish history! The back to back Irish 100m champion is on scholarship at UCD August 2022
Recognise the surname? Ruairi Canavan is up next. Swipe to watch him casually curl a sideline ball over the bar for the Tyrone U20s last weekend. He’s currently joint top scorer in the U20 championship. Oh and he’s vice captain too! Ruairi canavan is certainly one to watch April 2022
Averaging 13.1 points in her first year of superleague basketball, Kara McCleane is set to rise to the top ranks of the domestic leagues The 19 year old from Galway was selected by @karl_kilbride to represent Ireland at the 2022 U20 Division A European championships squad a year young. She has also represented Ireland at the 2021 European Challengers and was called up by @jamesweldon1 and the Senior Women’s team for international friendlies vs Estonia in Dublin this summer. December 2022
Averaging 11.8 points across 6 games so far this season Brunell’s Lauryn Homan is one to watch in the Irish Women’s Super league. With a notable 21 points vs Ulster University and a buzzer beater layup in the opening game of the season vs DCU Mercy, it’s safe to say the 20 year old up is making her presence felt. After being cut from the Ireland U16 panel, the U18 euros being postponed in 2020, Lauryn made her international debut this summer with the U20 team November 2022
In October 2021 Abbie Larkin burst onto the Women’s National League scene scoring at the 6th minute in her debut for Shelbourne. Her performance earned her the player of the match award as they defeated Galway 2-0 Her strong performances continued and she earned a call up by Vera Pauw to the Irish Senior set up for the Pintar Cup in February 2022. She collected two caps at the tournament becoming one of the youngest players to feature for the Irish Senior women’s team. April 2022
Sarah Hickey 18 points 18 rebounds 4 assists 30 minutes Also competed for the U20 women this summer and was named young superleague player of the year @witwildcats Maria Kealy 40 minutes 10 points 7 rebounds 8 assists 4 steals @lyitdonegal @letterkennyblazebasketball Lucy Coogan 21 points on 42% field goal percentage 8 rebounds 2 assists 36 minutes Playing for @caldwell_wbb next season @kilkennystarsbasketball August 2022
Daniel Whelan ended a 37 year drout becoming the first Irishman since 1985 to sign with an NFL team. The punter, originally from Wicklow, signed with the New Orleans Saints. While Dublin born kicker James McCourt signed with the LA Chargers after six years at the University of Illonois. Wishing both players the best of luck as they will both attend training camps with the hope of earning a roster spot for the 2022 NFL Season
The 2022 NJCAA National Championship game MVP. Deborah broke the tournament rebounds record averaging 14.5 points and 17.0 rebounds per game with a staggering 22 rebounds in the final!! 🤯 The 5”11 forward committed to NCAA Division 1 University of Texas Grand Rio Valley and is averaging 9.8 points and 8.4 rebounds so far this season. Deborah helped Waterford Wildcats to national cup glory in 2020. She was awarded MVP in the national cup final and later voted as POTY December 2022