It's game on until 2014

There is good news for Athlone this week with organisers of the Community Games saying they are 'very confident' that the national finals will remain in AIT until 2014. The Community Games see approximately 3,000 competitors participate each of the three weekends, with one weekend held in May each year and two weekends held during August. The Community Games finals were first held in AIT in 2009, with the organisers committing to the venue for three years, with the option of holding the finals in Athlone for a fourth year. It emerged this week that the Community Games will be held in the town next year and will most likely remain here until 2014. CEO of the HSE Community Games Fiachra O'Mathuna told the Westmeath Independent yesterday: "We will be there in 2012. We expect to be there in 2013 and into 2014, we're very confident for the next three years." Mr O'Mathuna said Athlone had been a very successful venue to date. He said: "The HSE Community Games National Finals went really well again in 2011. We will reflect and review on how all our events went as we seek to improve and offer an even better experience for our participants, volunteers and visitors. 2012 will be even better and bigger in AIT, particularly as we are looking forward to having at that stage the newly completed facilities in addition to the existing excellent infrastructure on campus. We would like to thank all our partners and friends in Athlone particularly, our host AIT, the Defence Forces, the Gardai and Athlone Town Council for their continued support, which we look forward to extending into and beyond 2012." President of AIT Prof. Ciarán Ó Catháin said the original commitment had been for three years and the Community Games had already committed to holding the finals in Athlone next year. He said the facilities here and the support received made it a very attractive venue for the organisers and added: "Our view is that we'd hope to have it here permanently." Two very successful weekends have just been held at AIT with almost 6,000 participants competing in the national finals over the two weekends, with 600 volunteers present each weekend and numerous supporters flocking to Athlone to see the event.