Superb McCarthy wins 11th senior 60x30 handball title

Mullingar handballer Robbie McCarthy retained the 60x30 national title at Croke Park on Saturday to add to his impressive roll of honour.

McCarthy defeated the first time finalist Diarmuid Mulkerrins in a dominant display in the National Handball Centre. It is McCarthy’s 11th 60x30 senior singles title, which is a truly phenomenal achievement and he has been in every final since 2009.

McCarthy overcame Martin Mulkerrins in the semi-final before defeating his brother in the decider.

Saturday was the 100th anniversary GAA Handball Final in the National Handball Centre at Croke Park, adding to the significance of the win.

Result: Robbie McCarthy (Westmeath) defeated Diarmuid Mulkerrins (Galway) 21-8, 21-7.

Robbie’s semi-final win over Martin Mulkerrins of Galway was impressive. While the pair met in last year's final with Robbie taking it in two straight games, he appeared to have a dip in his performance in game two allowing Martin to bring it to a tiebreaker.

Considered one of the most gifted 60x30 players ever, Robbie returned to court for the tiebreaker and gave the crowd an eye opener display of handball to take his place in the All-Ireland Final with a 21-15, 15-21, 11-2 win.

Meanwhile, Robbie’s younger sister Aoife McCarthy bowed out of the ladies championship at the semi-final stage a week previously.

With a packed gallery, it was the ladies’ semi-final that started the program in the National Handball Centre, Croke Park. Commencing the match with serve against Mollie Dagg of Kildare, it was pretty steady and level until the ladies reached 10 a piece in game one. Mollie started to pull away with some class kills and great movement on the court to take the first game 21-10. Aoife was fairly steady and while there were some amazing rallies and shots between the pair, it unfortunately just didn’t transfer to the scoreboard on this occasion. Game two was another feast of great serving and rallies from the pair with Mollie pulling away at 6-5 to take a lead of 12-6. McCarthy fought back to bring it to 19-12 but with some disappointing calls against her it wasn’t long before the Kildare lady was serving for the match.