Mayo pair shine at Canadian 4-Wall Nationals
THE 2026 Canadian 4-Wall Nationals, held at the Ches Penney Family YMCA in St. John’s, Newfoundland, proved to be a hugely successful tournament for Claremorris handballers Patrick Murphy and Dessie Keegan.
The Mayo pair were prominent across the Men’s Open grades, with Murphy claiming his first men’s Open Singles title and also teaming up with Keegan to win the Men’s Open Doubles crown.
Murphy produced the standout individual performance of the tournament by winning his first men’s Open Singles title against a strong field.
He began his campaign with a quarterfinal victory over Vincent St-Amant of Quebec. Having arrived in Canada less than 24 hours before the tournament, Murphy took some time to settle and adapt, losing the opening game before battling back impressively to win the match 13-15, 15-8, 15-6.
He then faced Caolan Smith, a Cavan native playing out of Vancouver, in the semi-final. Murphy delivered a much sharper performance in the last four, overcoming Smith 15-7, 15-5 to book his place in the final.
There he met Jerome Santerre of Quebec, the tournament’s number one seed. Murphy took the opening game 15-10, before finding himself in serious trouble in the second as Santerre moved into a 12-4 lead. However, Murphy showed tremendous composure to produce a superb comeback from that position, reeling in the deficit before closing out the game 15-13 to secure a landmark title win.
Murphy and Keegan joined forces in the men’s Open Doubles competition, where they were seeded second. After receiving a bye into the semi-final, they defeated Robert Fox, a Meath native playing out of Newfoundland, and Kevin Kopchuk (Calgary) 15-10, 15-8 to reach the final.
In the decider, they faced the experienced Quebec pairing of Jerome Santerre and Vincent St-Amant. After narrowly losing the opening game 13-15, Murphy and Keegan responded in emphatic fashion, taking the next two games 15-4, 15-6 to claim the title.
Dessie Keegan also enjoyed a strong run in the men’s Masters 40+ Doubles alongside Shane Vigen of Edmonton.
The pair advanced to the final following convincing victories over Andrew Short and Dan Santha of Calgary, and Chris Simmons and Larry Salmon of Newfoundland.
They finished runners-up after losing the decider to Kevin Kopchuk (Calgary) and Jordan Fromstein (Vancouver), completing a strong tournament campaign for Keegan.
Overall, it was an excellent tournament for the Claremorris players, who claimed major honours and delivered strong performances across several grades on the international stage.