Dublin athletes scoop 13 medals at British Transplant Games

The Transplant Sport Ireland put in a spectacular showing at the British Transplant Games held in Coventry recently.

Athletes from the UK, Northern Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia took part in the games.

Winning 16 Gold, 9 Silver, and 6 Bronze medals, the Irish contingent of 2023 is the most successful Transplant team ever to compete in the championships.

Dublin athletes were among those that contributed to Ireland’s winning haul.

The recently formed Team Ireland Soccer team took part in their first transplant games experience doing so in style capturing the Bronze medal.

Dublin’s Jayson Flynn, Riyadh Abdelakder, and Darragh Stapleton were all involved in this historic win, with Stapleton scoring the opening goal.

There were also superb wins in the Cycling 5K time trial and Road Race with experienced Team Ireland athlete John Moran from Glasnevin winning Gold and Silver in the cycling events and then went on to win Silver in both the 800m and 1500m.

Liver recipient Darragh Stapleton from Lucan added another medal to his soccer bronze, snapped up Silver in the 1500m. Skerries man Peter Heffernan, a kidney recipient and seasoned swimmer took Bronze in 50m, and Team Ireland’s Living donor Ivan Kinahan took Silver in his Donor 100m run.

The Junior Team Ireland athletes replicated this success with super wins of their own. Laura McDowell from Dublin took Silver in Table Tennis and went on to win both the Long Jump and the 2.5K road race, coming home with an impressive haul of medals.

Transplant Sport actively promotes the importance of more people telling their family and friends they wish to donate, so that families do not refuse to give consent because of a lack of knowledge. It demonstrates powerfully that organ donation works and each athlete is deeply grateful for the gift of life – none more so than the athletes in Team Ireland.

Team Ireland said it has one shared purpose – to showcase the success of organ donation and transplantation whilst offering inspiration to those who are newly transplanted or newly diagnosed with organ failure.

The Team has one simple request to everyone – to please consider carrying an Organ Donor Card and Have the conversation – Say YES to Organ Donation.