A team represen-ting Westmeath has won both the overall award and a ‘Spirit of the Games Award’ at the Go for Life Games held in the DCU on Saturday, 10 June. The team was one of 24 from around the country participating in a day of fun sporting activities.
Now in its sixth year, the Go for Life Games is one of the biggest social sports events for older people in Ireland and this year’s event brought together 300 older players from all over Ireland, to compete, to stay healthy and to have fun.
Go for Life is the national physical activity programme for older people, run by Age & Opportunity and funded by Sport Ireland. The Go for Life programme and the Games event demonstrates that sports are for everyone, no matter what age you are.
“It’s absolutely wonderful to get a day out like this, and it’s not about winning, it’s about competing, fair play and a bit of fun. It’s something we look forward to every year. At the end of the day, this is what it should be like for older people. I really appreciate the work of our team manager, who brought us together and takes the time to train with us, as only for her, we wouldn’t be here today competing,” said Joe Dunne of the winning team.
The Spirit of the Games awards go to teams or individuals who encourage a spirit of fair play and camaraderie during the final. The Westmeath team’s supportiveness of other teams and their infectious good humour helped to make the day what it was.
A shocked TP O’Gorman shared what winning this special award means to the Westmeath team.
“Wonderful day, so surprised to have won. To get the Spirt of the Games award is brilliant. That’s even more than winning anything in the sense of competition, that’s what its all about. Taking part, having fun, it’s fantastic!”
With 24 teams from 21 counties competing, the Westmeath team faced some stiff competition on the day. What began as a one-day event in 2012 is now a year-round phenomenon, with older groups training, practising, competing and coming through heats in their counties in order to compete in the finals in DCU.
The event is growing every year and it is hoped that by 2018, there will be teams competing from every county in Ireland.
Team Manager Sarah McManus, from the Westmeath Sports Partnership, spoke about the work that has gone into getting to the Games:
“We came together a few weeks ago, we train once a week. It’s a great way for us to have fun and get together. From this we have all become friends from it and we enjoyed a great day today.
