The oneills.com World 4-Wall Handball Championships serve off on Saturday at the National Handball Centre in Croke Park and various Leinster venues, with almost 1,700 entries from Ireland, the USA, Canada, Mexico and Japan.The elite Open grades commence on Monday – all of those games will be played at Croke Park – with many of the other divisions beginning on Saturday.The tournament will run until the following Sunday, 3 November, with huge interest centred on the elite grades, which have attracted stellar fields in the Men's and Ladies Open divisions.The Men’s Open is arguably the strongest line-up assembled in decades, with 17 overseas players making the trip, augmenting a very strong Irish line-up.The field is headed by Texas-based Galway man Martin Mulkerrins.
A full-time handball coach and lecturer at Texas A&M University in College Station, the Moycullen man has been very successful on the American pro circuit, winning five events in succession in recent months.Team Ireland men’s captain is Westmeath’s Robbie McCarthy while also in the mix for the Irish men are Cork native and Boston resident Killian Carroll, a former number one in the States, and 2022 All-Ireland Senior Singles champion Diarmaid Nash.The main overseas challengers will include Mexican brothers Luis and Daniel Cordova as well as 22-year-old Illinois man Ray Ure, who excels across a range of sporting disciplines and is regarded as the rising star of American handball, having recently made the final of a major professional tournament for the first time.The Irish women’s captain is former Roscommon footballer Fiona Tully, who reached the final of the All-Ireland Senior Singles earlier this year.