Suir Blueway Community Sports Hub to help national canoe kayak team

The opening of a new community sports hub in Clonmel incorporating a 350-metre kayaking slalom course along the river Suir is aimed at helping local clubs grow and improve but also provides a new training base for the national canoe kayak team.

Using the natural resource of the river Suir which cuts through the heart of the town, the Tipperary Sports Partnership, along with other state and voluntary agencies and clubs, have developed a facility along Suir Island and Denis Burke Park which is the first of its kind outside the capital.

The course is already being used by the likes of Clonmel Canoe Club and Ardfinnan Canoe Club as well as youth and training organisations from local towns and villages and, crucially, the national kayaking squad.