[dropcap]D[/dropcap]CU student Moya Ryan recently represented Ireland in the Babolat Bulgarian Badminton International where she placed second in the Women’s Doubles competition with her partner Kate Frost.
Ryan’s love for the sport started early, she started playing by age 7, and at the age of 10 she began playing competitively.
“I loved the sport and enjoyed meeting new people when I had the opportunity to travel to new places,” Ryan said.
After some success in competitions, Ryan was selected to represent Ireland at the age of 13.
“It was difficult to manage my training and secondary school life, especially when it came to Leaving Cert. I used to travel to Dublin twice a week after school to train.”
“I have won various national underage titles as I progressed through the underage ranks of Irish Badminton. I have also represented Ireland at European Junior championships,” Ryan told The College View.
Ryan is currently in her third year in DCU, studying Physical Education and Biology.
“When I got the opportunity to move to Dublin to go to university I knew it would help me progress my badminton further. I would be able to train at high quality and intensity every day”.
“My sports scholarship has helped me to keep on top of my studies while also train hard and travel as part of my badminton career.”
“My move to Dublin helped me progress as a player training in the national training centre with the best players in the country,” Ryan said.
Ryan won her first senior cap for Ireland earlier this year.
“This was a big achievement for me and has inspired me to work even harder to continue to improve,” she said.
The recent Bulgarian International, was where Ryan and her doubles partner Kate Frost won their first international honours, a silver medal.
“Myself and my doubles partner knew before we travelled we could do well at this competition if we performed at our best level. We had won two competitions in Ireland in the lead up to travelling and we felt we were playing at a high level.”
“A couple of pairs withdrew in our half of the draw which meant we had to play less games than we anticipated,” the Irish international said.
“We won our semi final convincingly against a Greek pair. We knew the final would be difficult against the Swedish pair. We felt our nerves got the better of us in the first set. We settled well in the second but it wasn’t enough to win.”
“On reflection we were proud of our first medal at international level. We are now more determined than ever to work hard to improve our level to compete with some of the higher level pairs on the European circuit and we look forward to the challenges we face.”
Looking to the future, Ryan has a busy couple of months ahead with international competitions and the Irish Open to look forward to.
“I will be playing in a number of competitions within Ireland to keep me match sharp. In November I will play international competitions in Scotland and Wales, and also the Irish Open which is the international competition hosted by Ireland.”
“These competitions will be targets for me as I continue to work hard to improve my level. They are big challenges which I look forward to facing. I also am looking forward to playing for Leinster in the English League where we will play as a newly promoted team in the premier division.”
Joseph O’Gorman
Image Credit: Badminton Ireland / Twitter.