[banners_ad id=136] |
Oisín O’Callaghan, who won the junior downhill world title last year, has been named among the shortlist for the RTE Young Sportsperson of 2020 Award.
News of his nomination comes just days after Ireland's Tour de France star Sam Bennett was named in a shortlist of six for the senior RTE Sport 2020 Sportsperson of the Year Award.
The award for senior athletes is completely separate to the competition for younger sports people and RTE also runs a third award for sports management.
The 17-year-old took two UCI Downhill World Cup wins last year, both in Slovenia in October, and also claimed junior gold at the World Championships in Austria the same month.
O'Callaghan was also 2nd overall in the World Cup series at season end, only seeing a 19-point lead disappear in the final races in Portugal when he crashed and punctured.
Advertisement
Related News
The Limerick teenager could have coasted through the final World Cup races and played it safe as even a modest result would have secured the title for him.
However, he said that wasn’t in his nature and he had to go for broke every time he raced.
That mindset is one that has clearly delivered huge results for him, even though he is still only a first year junior, and it was already very evident in his early years in primary school.
For the RTE award, O’Callaghan is up against Aaron Hill, the snooker player who beat Ronnie O’Sullivan at the European Masters, as well as Kildare boxer Katelyn Phelan who won the WBC youth title in the welterweight division.
Also nominated is Keane Barry who won the BDO World Youths Championship and Mayo football defender Oisin Mullin.
Topics
