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Research Matters

The Human Touch: NUI Galway's Future Olympian

 
 

Future Olympic medallists may be in the office right next door!  Dr. Niamh Bhreathnach, Lab Manager in the Microbial Ecology Lab based in the Ryan Institute at NUI Galway, is currently training in Archery for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Niamh started Archery in 2004, and has since shot ahead in the field (no pun intended), receiving many honours in the sport.  She has received 5 NUI Galway sports awards, and was the undefeated champion in the University intervarsity league 5 years in a row. She still holds the highest score and intervarsity record to this day.

Selected for the National Irish Archery Team in 2004, she has since represented Ireland in competitions in England, France, Germany, Holland and Croatia.  The year she took up Archery and joined the National Team, she set her first National Record, and has broken it on 12 occasions since. For three years running, she has been the National Indoor Barebow champion, twice setting new national records and National Outdoor champion for 2 years in a row, again setting new national records on both occasions.  In 2009 she was ranked 10th in the world outdoor ranking and 1st in the world indoor ranking!  In May of 2009, she was awarded the Galway VEC award for special achievements in her career and sport.

Clearly Niamh was called to this sport, but she is not single-minded in her pursuit of it.  She is also a fluent Irish speaker, an accomplished traditional Irish musician in bodhrán and tin whistle, and a very dedicated researcher.  When asked how she manages to maintain such a work-life balance she had this to say “Achieving a good balance between two things that you love to do is always a challenge! My daily lab manager duties as well as my research in monitoring microbial pathogens in water definitely keeps me on my toes but is hugely satisfying. As they say though, ’all work and no play....’. Having a release in the form of Archery is something I can do to switch off my academic mind and focus on something else. To reach this level involves years of hard work, dedication, a huge amount of focus and sacrifice but it's so worth it! The buzz you get from stepping onto that line, drawing back the bow and hitting the gold 70m away.... there's no feeling like it! I'm a very competitive person anyway and want to do well in whatever I do so aiming for the Olympics is a target I mean to hit! (all puns intended!!!)"

We wish Niamh the very best of luck!

 

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