Westmeath footballer to compete on Ireland's Fittest Family

Promising Westmeath footballer Eoghan Bracken is set to compete alongside other members of his family on the TV show 'Ireland's Fittest Family' this Sunday evening, January 24.

Eoghan was the captain of last year's Westmeath U-20 team which was dramatically knocked out of the Leinster championship by Laois in a penalty shoot-out.

The 20-year-old was also part of the Coralstown/Kinnegad team which reached the quarter-finals of last year's Westmeath SFC.

A science teaching student in Limerick, Eoghan is taking part in Ireland's Fittest Family with his dad Andrew, brother Ruaidhrí (18) and sister Ailbhe (16).

To qualify to get on the show was a thrill for the Brackens, who had long been big fans, reveals Andrew, a 52-year-old suckler farmer.

“We would have been watching it every year and the family would always be saying: ‘We could do that!’,” said the Ballinabrackey man. “Of course it always looks easier when you are just watching it on TV.”

When the call for entries was put out this year, they were among the hundreds who decided to apply.

Within a couple of weeks they were contacted and told that because of Covid-19, they would not be brought to Athlone IT for fitness testing as happened in previous years; instead, they were to film themselves taking part in a set of timed fitness tests at home.

Sport is a big passion in the Bracken home, and so fitness wasn’t a major issue.

They duly filmed the fitness tasks and, shortly afterwards, received the exciting news that they had been selected as one of the 16 families who would take part.

Ruaidhrí was in sixth year last year and was, therefore, one of the students who didn’t get to complete their Leaving Cert. His main sport is Gaelic football but he has also played soccer.

Ailbhe is a member of the Arts Centre in Mullingar, where she sings, dances and does drama, and she is also a keen Gaelic footballer.

Andrew is a member of two running clubs – Kinnegad AC and Naomh Chiaráin. Although he only took up running six years ago, he now runs 5ks, 10ks and half-marathons regularly.

A farm is a great environment for training and so the four worked on building their strength and endurance last summer, with no idea of what challenges they would face when the event kicked off at the competition site in Co. Wicklow.

But when they launched into the competition, the Westmeath representatives found it way tougher than they had anticipated.

“The first event is something you could never have imagined,” Andrew told the Westmeath Examiner.

But they had great support from their coach, former Cork camogie star Anna Geary. And of course they had plenty of backing from the non-competing family members, Andrew’s wife Ann-Marie, his daughter Aishling and son Ciarán.

The Brackens will feature on the next episode of Ireland's Fittest Family, which will be shown on RTE 1 on Sunday at 6.30pm.