Paddy Dowdall wins 2020 Special Achievement award

Dual GAA star Paddy Dowdall is the winner of one of two Special Achievement awards up for grabs at this year’s Westmeath Examiner Sports Awards, sponsored by the Mullingar Park Hotel, Home Instead Midlands and ORS Consulting Engineers, Mullingar.

Former Westmeath hurler Paddy (38) was a mainstay for both clubs as they won Westmeath senior hurling and football competitions in 2020 – one of the most difficult years in living memory for practitioners of any sport.

This award is as much about past as present; when Paddy picked up his senior hurling and football championship medals last autumn, they brought his overall senior club medals tally to a phenomenal 14 – nine in hurling, and five in football, which is surely a record.

An engineer with the Defence Forces, Paddy was on overseas duty for a portion of last year’s club football and hurling fare, but returned to play an important role in the championship success enjoyed by Clonkill and St Loman’s.

Without a doubt, we haven’t seen the last of Paddy Dowdall on the Cusack Park turf yet – can he land medals no. 15 and 16 in 2021?