Vincent Muldoon captured his second Irish Championships in Carlow on Sunday to finish No.1 in the Irish Rankings for the season. The 17 year old will now receive the main tour nomination from RIBSA and hopefully be plying his trade on the main tour next season. Vincent beat Dublin's Garry Hardiman 8-2 in the final, the same score line he won the championships last season. 

Vincent was one ranking point ahead before the championships and safely negotiated his way past the first championship weekend winning his first two matches 4-0 to qualify. His first match this weekend saw him go 3-1 down to three time Irish Champion Jason Watson before he fought back to win 5-3. That win was followed by a 5-0 win over Jason Keogh in the quarter finals. 

The semi final saw three players still in with a shout of finishing No.1 and getting the nomination however when Muldoon overcame David Hogan 6-3 it was just down to himself and Brendan O'Donoghue. Brendan however was struggling to win his semi final match and indeed lost out 6-2 to Garry Hardiman. The No.1 spot was secure and Muldoon could now go into Sunday's final relaxed.

That he certainly was as he raced into a 5-0 lead with breaks of 75, 81, 56 and 98. The sixth frame saw Garry open with a 55 break but Muldoon was just on fire and responded with a superb 76 clearance to close out the first session. 

Hardiman clawed back two frames after the break but breaks of 54 and 58 were good enough for Muldoon to take the next two frames and the title.

Muldoon will now join the other six Republic of Ireland players on the tour next season should his nomination be accepted by the W.S.A this season.

Below you can view the presentation and Vincent's speech and you can also click here to view the final few shots of the match (Apologies for the poor quality)