Aoife is on top of the world

CLAREMORRIS Special Olympic athlete Aoife Beston is on top of the world after completing a personal goal of getting to the top of the highest mountain in each of the 32 counties in Ireland.

This is an achievement of which any hill walker would be proud. It was not an easy feat as Carrauntoohil, in particular, was a real challenge. Anyone who has been up the devil’s ladder will appreciate that.

But this is a girl with great determination and, although that particular climb took over 10 hours to complete, she never gave up and was not deterred. That was only the second of her 32 peaks but with the most difficult ticked off her list, surely all the others were possible.

And so her journey continued. She was on the mountains on wet and windy days as well as beautiful sunny ones. She had some early starts (4 a.m.) and some late finishes (10.30 p.m). One day last summer she scaled four county tops in 12 hours. While one in Kildare was a stroll, the other three, Dublin, Wexford/Carlow and Kilkenny, were difficult.

Some readers may remember Aoife from the Special Olympics World Games in 2003 where she was disqualified in her 400-metre and 800-metre walk events.
Since then Aoife has proven to be a true ambassador of the Special Olympics motto: ‘Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.’  

From that disappointment Aoife has gone on to successfully compete in 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre running events. She is an inspiration to all young sports people, showing that with commitment, encouragement and dedication any dream can be achieved.

Well done Aoife. Everybody is proud of you.