Martina McMahon basks in double ‘World’ wallball glory

“MY MAIN focus coming into the championships was to win the ‘Big Ball’ open singles, to retain my title from 2018, and to finish off the week on a high winning that title again was an incredible feeling,” was Limerick woman Martina McMahon's reaction to capturing two World Wallball Championship titles at UL last week.

Croagh-Kilfinny native McMahon won the Ladies Open small ball singles title after defeating USA's Myohwa Hwer earlier in the week before retaining her crown in the World Wallball Championships Ladies open final with an impressive 21-10, 21-9 victory over Fiona Tully, of Roscommon.

McMahon has been playing handball since the age of eight, but in the last few years she has taken her training to another level as the sport tries to break through onto the Olympic stage for 2028.

Winning the titles on home soil was an ‘amazing experience’ for the 29-year-old and McMahon was delighted with the support she enjoyed throughout her semi-finals and finals in UL.

“It was lovely to go back to UL where I studied and then obviously the fact the championships were in Limerick I was able to gather up a bit of support and it was nice to have them there watching me,” McMahon told Leader Sport.

“A lot of the handball tournaments rotate and they could be dotted anywhere in the world, so usually I only have my mum with me at those competitions, but it was lovely to have my siblings and members of the Broadford club there as well to cheer me on and it definitely was an advantage for me.”

Due to Covid the World Championships in the sport have not taken place until 2024 at the University of Limerick, where McMahon studied Biomedical Engineering and is now working full-time with a Dublin Company as a senior QA specialist, alongside trying to juggle training for the recent World Championships.

McMahon admits that she would ‘love to get a sponsor’ so that she could dedicate herself to the sport for the next year or two.
“I don't even know does such a thing exist, but a sponsor would mean I could fully focus on handball for a while. I suppose with my back injury I am on a bit of a ticking time bomb, but I am working full-time at the moment and handball unfortunately isn't feasible to do all the time for me at the moment.”

After winning two prestigious titles at the World Championships in Limerick the Limerick woman hopes it will encourage younger athletes to take up the sport in their local clubs.

She spoke about her home handball club, Broadford, in which she grew up playing the sport in. “Handball naturally does have smaller numbers than the traditional sports and Covid did kill a lot of numbers that we had growing in the club at the time, but now we are getting a lot of youngsters back again.

“Evan and Pat Murphy are the real driving force in getting the younger generation playing and hopefully my success will drum up a bit of excitement around the sport and we will get a few more down, anything I can do to help keep the game alive is what I am aiming to do.”

McMahon has no intention of slowing down after her World Title victories as she now sets her sights on the 40x20 or the Four-Ball World Championships at the end of October in Croke Park.

This is the first time the World Wallball and the Four Ball championships have been split apart creating two separate competitions in which Martina will aim to leave her mark on as well.