European Player of the Year winner from Mayo
A Mayo woman has been named Ultimate Frisbee European Player of the Year.
Sarah Melvin, a past pupil of Gortnor Abbey in Crossmolina, picked up the accolade on the back of a stunning year in which she captained the Ireland Women's team who won the European Championships in July and was a dominant figure in the Eurostars Tour to the US.
The website ultimate.com put Sarah's achievements into perspective: “Sarah Melvin was unstoppable this year. Before the 2018 Eurostars tour, very few people had heard of the Mayo woman but now she is one of the most well known athletes in Europe.
“She scored three goals and had four assists in the EUC final win over Switzerland. She scored or assisted every offensive point in the first half. This was an historic win for Ireland that even resulted in a trip to visit the Irish president.
“Melvin often had to manage her minutes in early stages of tournaments but in the big moments nobody in Europe or the US could shut her down. With Aine Gilheany in the quarterback position and Fiona Mernagh acting as a mid for both Ireland and Dublin Gravity (club team), Melvin was usually given the job of punctuating scores and there ain’t no one better. No matter who was covering her, Melvin found herself open deep time and time again, tirelessly gaining metres for Ireland and Gravity.
“Sometimes players would try to force her under and if she found herself outside the endzone she would take the opportunity to bust out one of her trademark lefty dishes.
“She was also the stats leader of the star-studded Eurostars 2019 tour, picking up nine goals, five assists and two blocks in the first three games. Robyn Fennig tried her best to shut Melvin down at EUCF but not even America’s finest could slow her down.
“Gravity were looking like the best team at EUCF until Melvin’s team-mate Mernagh had to bow out due to an unfortunate injury in pool play. If Melvin and Mernagh can stay injury free, the Irish Women might just do some serious damage at WUGC 2020.”