Brady completes fourth title success
It has been quite a few days for Cavan man Paul Brady, who last night thrilled the CityWest crowd by winning his fourth men's singles title in-a-row at the World Handball Championships.
The 21-19, 21-10 success over Luis Moreno comes just over a week after he helped Mullahoran to their first Cavan SFC crown since 2006 as they overcame Kingscourt in a hard-fought final replay.
Brady got the better of American number 1 Moreno in a tense singles decider, but looked up against it when he trailed 13-2 early on.
Moreno, nine years Brady's junior at 24, was in excellent form as he produced shot after shot to surge ahead with the defending champion looking nervous and out-of-sorts.
However, Brady recovered to reduce the arrears to 16-13 and then get back level at 19-all before claiming the final point to take the first game.
It was a stunning comeback from the 2003, 2006 and 2009 title winner. He is usually a study of quiet concentration and focus, but the emotion of it all led to him roaring his approval and banging the back wall in celebration.
Brady's serve continued to improve and as he began to mix up his shots in the second game, Moreno's accuracy was not what it was and he fell behind the Irish star.
Brady showed glimpses of his best form, commanding the pace of the rallies, serving precisely and executing some superb 'dump shots' and trademark kills.
There was no way back for Moreno as Brady saw it out on a 21-10 scoreline. A loss to the American from four years ago, Brady revealed afterwards, was a driving force behind his latest World final win.
"I just feel very relieved, I wanted to keep going right to the end, I never stopped fighting," said the Cavan senior footballer.
"I still remember a defeat he inflicted on me in 2008, I remember that pain and it drove me and I just said I'd never give up."
Winning on home soil was a fitting way for Brady to bow out at this level as he conceded earlier in the week that this was his last World singles event.
Also at the CityWest venue last night, Aisling Reilly came out on top against her St. Paul's, Belfast club-mate Fiona Shannon in an exciting women's singles final.
Reilly took the verdict despite losing the first game to three-time champion Shannon, who kept her error count low for a 21-9 triumph.
The 23-year-old recovered well as her strong serve and some terrific kills saw her take the second game 21-6, setting up a thrilling tiebreaker.
Shannon was unable to quell the youngster's fire and Reilly finished with aplomb to win 11-5 in the tiebreaker.
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