Giants Win Is Top Sporting Moment Of 2018

Hosted by the Belfast Telegraph, the newspaper compiled a list of 20 contenders for the Northern Irish sporting moment of the year with over 2,500 readers placing votes.

The Giants picked up an impressive 29% of the total with over 700 votes going to the 6-3 Challenge Cup Final win in Cardiff last March against the Devils.

The 2018 Challenge Cup win was the Giants second following the victory in 2009 and came thanks to goals from Jonathan Ferland x2, Brandon Benedict, John Kurtz, Darcy Murphy and Man of the Match + Game Winner Matt Towe.

Head Coach Adam Keefe on the Giants winning Northern Ireland’s Top Sporting Moment:

“The Challenge Cup success was a special moment for the organisation – especially for the fans who travelled to Cardiff in tough weather conditions as well as those who cheered us on from home. Thank you to our fans as well as the Belfast Telegraph readers who voted for the Giants – we hope we will have even more special moments in 2019.”

Second place was the Irish Rugby team’s 16-9 victory against the All Blacks in November with Northern Ireland’s Netball team in third place following their qualification for the 2019 World Cup.

Rounding off the Top 10 were Jonathan Rea’s fourth successive World Superbike title, Glenn Irwin’s North West 200 success, Irish Rugby’s ‘Grand Slam’ in the 6 Nations, the Irish women’s hockey World Cup silver medal, Tyrone GAA reaching the All Ireland final, Carl Frampton’s victory over Luke Jackson at Windsor Park and Rhys McClenaghan’s gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and European Championship.