Renowned Waterford Special Olympics Athlete George Fitzgerald recently received a National Award from Basketball Ireland and was named Basketball Ireland Table Official of the Year.

George received his award at a National ceremony held in Croke Park and organised by Basketball Ireland.

This is a huge honour for George who has been refereeing and table officiating at various local league games in the South East region for the last number of years.

George first qualified as a Table Official in 2014 where he carried out officiating responsibilities at the Special Olympic National Games in Limerick.

Since then George has gone on to become the first Special Olympic Athlete in Ireland to become a qualified Basketball referee through Basketball Ireland,

Recently George traveled to Abu Dhabi not as an athlete, but as part of the Irish delegation at the Special Olympics World Games where he carried out Table Official duties.