Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Newly married Nina Carberry showed her competitive side today as she horsed around with Hector O’hEochagain and brother Paul Carberry to launch the Jockey Olympics, which will take place at Naas Racecourse on Sunday 26th February 2012.The event will see top jockeys get competitive in various events to support the GOAL Horn of Africa Appeal.
Hector O’hEochagain will be the commentator and master of ceremonies on the day. The competition will incorporate three events, an egg and spoons race, a three-legged race and the final event will be a relay race when they will be required to pass off the whip as their baton. GOAL will have a bucket collection on the day to raise funds for the Horn of Africa.
Nina, who put her honeymoon on hold to get back to the track following her recent wedding to Ted Walsh Jnr, unveiled her ambitions to lead the newly established ladies team to victory. She said: “This is the first ladies team to be involved in the Jockey’s Olympics and 2012 is an official Olympic year so we are out to win. Katie Walsh scored the winning goal last year so we’ll be taking lessons from her in preparation for the big day.”
Last year, the prestigious honour went to Meath man Barry Geraghty’s team of Robert Power, John Cullen, Alan Crowe and Paddy Flood who gave their all and were crowned the 2011 Jockey Olympians; there was clear delight as the team did a lap of honour around the parade ring making sure the other team captains could see their delight!
However with 2012 being an Olympic year, and the games being held on our doorstep across in the water in London, the stakes seem that little bit higher.
The ladies clearly have their eye on the prize and they may well be the ones to watch with Katie Walsh scoring the winning goal in the football skills event in 2011. During the afternoon, Captains Barry Geraghty, Paul Carberry, Davy Russell and Nina Carberry will all lead out their teams before the racegoers to take on the challenges in aid of the GOAL Horn of Africa Appeal in the parade ring in two sessions, after the 2nd race and after the 4th race. The first race is off at 1.45pm.
Hector O’hEochagain, MC for the Jockey Olympics, said: “Jockeys are renowned for their high levels of competitiveness; this competitiveness will be raised to an all time new level at the Jockey Olympics at Naas racecourse Sunday 26th February. Come and see jockeys out of their comfort zone and into the Olympic zone!”
Tom Ryan, Manager of Naas Racecourse, said: “We are delighted to be involved with the Jockey Olympics this year again; our Team Captains Barry, Nina, Paul & Davy are masters at their own game so I’m looking forward to seeing them adapt their talents for our Olympic challenges. I hope a huge crowd turn out to support GOAL’s efforts and cheer on their favourite team for what should be a very unique raceday. On the racing side, this card in 2009 produced four horses that went on to score at Grade 1 level, cementing the meetings reputations as a stepping stone to greatness. Golden Silver was a gallant 4th in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham after winning the paddypower.com Chase last year.”
GOAL'S activities in Horn of Africa
The crisis in the Horn of Africa continues to affect more than 12 million people, with hundreds of refugees pouring into Ethiopia and Kenya from famine-hit regions in Somalia every day.
GOAL is one of a small number of international aid agencies responding to the Somali refugee situation in Ethiopia. As well as dealing with the crisis there, our emergency response teams are also providing aid to refugees streaming across Somalia’s borders into camps in Kenya.
GOAL is also responding to the needs of some of the many Ethiopian and Kenyan people affected by drought in their own countries.
Ethiopia
GOAL has recently commenced operations in the latest refugee camp - the fifth – to open in Dolo Ado in the Somali region of Ethiopia, and is providing nutritional support through supplementary and blanket feeding programmes for some 50,000 Somali refugees. We will be supporting the treatment of severe malnutrition in this camp by establishing outpatient centres, and by actively seeking out cases of malnutrition in the wider community.
GOAL has been responding to the nutrition crisis in the Somali region from January, 2011, with a total of 13,500 children treated for malnutrition there since then. We have provided clean water to 140,000 people and over 90 metric tons of food aid to malnourished Somali women and children in the area. We have supplied core relief items, such as hygiene kits, kitchen sets and plastic sheeting, to over 30,500 people.
We have also been addressing the needs of drought-affected populations within Ethiopia since January, 2011. As a consequence, more than 33,500 children suffering from malnutrition have been treated by GOAL and we have distributed more than 47 million litres of water to 500,000 people.
We are also providing agricultural food security training and resources for more than 36,000 drought-affected people and we are providing therapeutic feeding to 3,000 malnourished children, as well as relief items to 2,500 beneficiaries.
GOAL has undergone a major expansion of our Ethiopia programme and we are now in over 20 locations across four regions. We are currently raising funds to allow effective implementation of the following:
• The direct delivery of nutrition, water, shelter and other support to 120,000 Somali refugees.
• The continued expansion of our community-based nutrition programmes to over 100,000 drought-affected Ethiopian people.
• The implementation of water and sanitation programmes for affected Ethiopian populations of all six regions of GOAL’s area of responsibility.
We have also been monitoring the influx of Sudanese refugees to the Benashangul/Assosa area of Western Ethiopia. We are currently operating a nutrition programme in the region and are ready to respond if there is a surge in refugee numbers to this area.
Kenya
GOAL has distributed large amounts of aid at the Dadaab refugee camps, on Kenya’s border with Somalia, sending 20 truck-loads of life-saving non-food items such as hygiene kits and tents to more than 10,000 refugees.
We are currently building hundreds of latrines in the camp, and intend to provide 10,000 emergency shelters, having already provided this support for more than 1,000 families.
GOAL also responded to the needs of thousands of drought-affected Kenyan people by trucking in water and engaging in cholera-prevention activities in Marsabit in the north of the country.
We are ensuring that there are adequate water and sanitation facilities in place at key health and education institutions in Marsabit to support the treatment of malnutrition, and to reduce the risk of hygiene-related infections amongst children.
