Monthly awards presented

The Meath Chronicle / Cusack Hotels sports personality-of-the-month awards for September, October and November were presented last week at Knightsbrook Hotel, Trim. This is the second year of the awards which culminate with an annual banquet during which the 2008 sports personality-of-the-year will be announced. That winner will be selected from the 12 monthly winners and that group will be finalised at the end of this month when the December winner will be announced. There will also be a category this year for outstanding achievements and the candidates for that will be revealed after Christmas. The gala banquet, which is by invitation only, will take place at Knightsbrook and is scheduled for Monday, 2nd February. Last Wednesday"s ceremony honoured the achievement of Rachel Eagleton (September), Sean Boylan (October) and the Kilmessan hurling team (November) and the recipients each received an award, specially commissioned from, and designed by, local artist Seamus Cassidy who is based at Beauparc. He has exhibited at the prestigious National Crafts Competition at the RDS on a number of occasions. Bettystown native Eagleton won her award at the European Transplant and Dialysis Games in Wurzburg, Germany. She is the daughter of Gladys and Tom Eagleton and and is currently studying for a Business Degree in DIT Aungier Street in Dublin.. 'I was on home dialysis for a year. It was for 12 hours every night, but I was young so it didn"t bother me. I was on the transplant list for eight months which is good compared to others,' she told the Meath Chronicle last week as she explained that she was delighted to receive the award. 'It"s great to achieve recognition locally and I was really surprised when I heard about it,' she stated International Rules manager Boylan was also pleased that his achievements with the Irish team in Australia during October were recognised while Kilmessan"s feat in winning the Leinster Club IHC was described as a marvellous achievement which was a tremendous boost for Meath hurling. Kilmessan chairman Tommy Brennan and team captain Ger O"Neill accepted the award.