Neil Kilpatrick travelled 7,160 miles from Doha in Qatar to Omagh to help his beloved Edendork win their first-ever Tyrone Senior Football Championship title — and he had to make the journey twice in less than a week. “It’s my World Cup, every bit of it,” he said.
Neil Kilpatrick (Credits: BBC Sport)
The round trip from Edendork to Healy Park in Omagh is only around 60 miles. But for Kilpatrick, who teaches in Doha, the commute to club glory was somewhat longer. After the first final ended in a draw, a replay meant hastily arranged long-haul flights all over again.
Neil Kilpatrick’s 7,160-Mile Journey From Doha to Omagh
Kilpatrick flew back to Qatar on the Monday morning after the drawn game, then flew back again, landing in Dublin at 6am on Friday before dashing home for the biggest night in his club’s history. With named storms sweeping the UK and Ireland, he was relieved to avoid a diversion to Shannon Airport.
“I flew back to Qatar on Monday morning after the drawn game and then I flew back and I landed into Dublin at 6am. But it’s worth every single bit of it,” he told BBC Sport NI. “A few hours’ sleep and then I got playing the game here. You know you’re never going to do anything without a wee bit of extra sacrifice.”
All told, 14,320 miles in less than seven days is surely the longest commute anyone has ever made to bring the O’Neill Cup home.
Edendork’s First Tyrone Title Means Everything
The win was extra special because Kilpatrick’s brother is Tyrone star Conn Kilpatrick, and sharing the triumph with family and the friends he grew up with made it unforgettable. Having missed the last couple of championships while living abroad, he had previously watched on TV — this time he was on the field.
“To many people this probably means nothing, but to the few that are out here on the field and are part of the Edendork community this is everything,” he said. “We’ll probably never experience a day like this ever again so you just have got to soak it up and enjoy every single bit of it.”
Back in his Doha classroom after mid-term, the scale of the achievement may be lost on colleagues at the Spanish outfit he works for — but Kilpatrick has a simple plan for explaining it. “They don’t need to know, I’ll tell them that I had a great week.”
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Source: BBC Sport — read the full story there.
