Road Bowling: Dervla Toal-Mallon claims All-Ireland senior title with narrow win over Geraldine Curtin

In this week of post mortems, both Tommy O’Sullivan and Pete Carr will have moments staring at the ceiling.

NARROW WIN: Geraldine Curtin’s philosophical take on narrowly missing out on a much coveted All-Ireland senior title against Dervla Toal-Mallon at Castletownkenneigh, echoed the sentiments of Sonia O’Sullivan following her silver medal win in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Picture: ©INPHO/Tom Honan

Geraldine Curtin’s philosophical take on narrowly missing out on a much coveted All-Ireland senior title against Dervla Toal-Mallon at Castletownkenneigh, echoed the sentiments of Sonia O’Sullivan following her silver medal win in the 2000 Sydney Olympics – both went home with silver not gold — but each could put their achievements in perspective.

After hearing Curtin’s take on her final, I listened to O’Sullivan’s interview with Greg Allen. O’Sullivan spoke about her famous 5,000m run in Sydney saying that “there definitely was some mistake made somewhere between 250 and 150” – which ceded control to Gabriela Szabo, who won gold. Everything could wind back to that single phase. For Curtin it was shot 13.