Ireland Men’s Hockey Team Captain Sean Murray hopes to inspire the next generation as they take to the world stage at the Olympic Games.
Murray, from Lisburn, will lead out a team consisting of eight players from Northern Ireland as well as Coach Mark Tumilty from Banbridge.
Ireland begin their Olympic campaign on Saturday 27 July at 9:30am as they face Belgium at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir in Colombes, just outside of Paris.
They will compete in Pool B where they will also face Australia (29 July, 9am), India (30 July, 12:15pm), Argentina (1 August, 12:15pm) and New Zealand (2 August, 4pm)
Murray said: “It’s been a long journey to think back to when I started at eight years old. My Dad and my brother were playing Hockey. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster since then to now be about to play at the Olympic Games.
“It’s important that we got to the Olympic Games to inspire the next generation. I remember seeing the team going to Rio in 2016. It made me drive on and have that extra motivation as well. Its important we give back to the sport and push the younger fans on.”
Sport NI has supported the team with £85,000 through the Athlete Award, providing financial support to help cover the costs of training and living expenses.
The Award made it possible to move to a part time programme to compete with the largely full-time programmes of their Top 8 nation counterparts who they will face at the Olympic Games.
Murray added: “We’re so thankful of the support from Sport NI. Without that, we probably wouldn’t be qualifying for the Olympic Games.
“It’s about getting those extra sessions together, that amount of time to work on the details that we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Guys are also trying to balance jobs and if you can’t get paid leave, it becomes very difficult. We have been able to have lots of practice matches against the teams we will be facing at the Olympics.”
Good luck to our other Northern Ireland representatives: Peter Brown (Banbridge) Kyle Marshall (Markethill) Johnny McKee (Newry) Peter McKibbin (Comber) Matthew Nelson (Lisburn) Michael Robson (Holywood) and Tim Cross (Carryduff)
The Sport NI Athlete Award is made possible thanks to National Lottery players, who raise £30m for good causes every week.
Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile