Star-struck junior readers get to meet Olympic hero

Olympic boxing hero Darren Sutherland was back in Navan at the weekend when he took time out from celebrating to present medals to some of the hundreds of children from around the county who completed the Meath County Council Library Service summer reading challenge, 'Team Read". It was a dream come true for the young children who participated in the Olympic-themed reading programme to receive their medals from a real-life Olympic hero. Darren, himself a member of Navan library, delighted his audience of young and old alike with tales from Beijing and he patiently answered all the questions from the floor. After posing for photographs with all the children, he told them to pursue their dreams of sporting glory but to remember to keep up with their studies. He outlined how he had gone back to do his Leaving Certificate in St Peter"s College, Dunboyne, when he realised that as well as boxing, he needed to have an academic background to fall back on as well. Darren viewed the exhibition of sporting books before accepting a presentation of the book 'The Great Middleweights" from a star-struck junior Olympian. It was the Navan library"s second visit from an Olympic medallist in recent years. Ronnie Delany, whose family originally is from Meath, previously took part in a reading and launch of his memoir, 'Staying the Distance", recalling his 1956 Olympics gold medal win in the 1,500 metres in Melbourne. Darren Sutherland, who lives on campus at DCU, where he is studying, has a busy week ahead of him. Today (Wednesday), the Olympics team is being hosted by President McAleese at Aras an Uachtaran, and on Friday night, Ireland"s three Olympic medal-winning boxers are appearing on the first Late Late Show of the new season.