Irish Times/Vhi Healthcare Sports Woman award for January Jessica Kürten (Equestrian) When he made the announcement that Vhi Healthcare would, in conjunction with The Irish Times, be sponsoring the 2006 sportswomen awards, Declan Moran, Director of Marketing and Business Development with Vhi Healthcare, wished "sportswomen throughout Ireland a successful sporting year".

Well, even if Jessica Kürten decided to take the next 11 months off she could already regard 2006 as a hugely successful sporting year.

Usually the deliberations for these awards can be quite lengthy, and occasionally a touch heated, not least when each judge nominates a different sportswoman at the end of the month.

The deliberations for the first of our 2006 monthly awards, however, were really rather brief. Judge number one? "Jessica." Judge number two? "Jessica." Judge number three? "Jessica." Kürten, then, is the unanimous winner of the first award sponsored by Vhi Healthcare.

"We are delighted to partner with The Irish Times to support the 2006 Sportswoman of the Year Awards," said Moran. "We are extremely proud to be associated with this prestigious initiative and welcome the opportunity to recognise the sporting achievements of women from a host of different sports.

"We are fully committed to the promotion of healthy living and we feel that the 2006 Sportswoman of the Year Awards offer a unique opportunity to celebrate the achievements of sporting women throughout Ireland, while also highlighting role models for future sporting generations," he said.

For those young Irish equestrian hopefuls Kürten is proving to be a role model of unrivalled quality. Throughout January it seemed as if every time we opened our sports pages there was news of yet another triumph by Kürten, whose start to 2006 was simply extraordinary.

A succession of seven international wins, including victory in the world's richest Grand Prix in Dubai, has lifted the Antrim-born rider to second in the world rankings, making her the highest ranked woman in her sport.

A further indication of the form Kürten has been in of late is that she has now won three of our last four monthly awards.

Having been pipped by Cork's Briege Corkery, the All-Ireland double winner, to our 2005 overall award, Kürten is already a serious contender for our 2006 award - with 11 months still to go.

We honoured her back in October when she became the first Irish woman to break in to the International Equestrian Federation's world top 10, and she was our winner again in December when she completed a marvellously consistent year with a string of fine performances on her debut at the Olympia Christmas Show in London.

Her January form, though, took Kürten to a whole new level - this despite having torn ligaments in her right shoulder in a fall off a young horse at home in Germany when she returned from London.

After resting the injury for a fortnight she returned to the saddle in Dubai at the Al Maktoum Memorial Challenge and, after winning the Dubai Masters on Castle Forbes Libertina, then took the richest prize in show jumping the following night when she won the Grand Prix aboard Quibell.

Time to put the feet up? Not quite. A hat-trick of wins in Leipzig was quickly followed by two more successes in Zurich, making it seven international wins in just 15 days for Kürten.

One win might have made Kürten a contender for our January award, but seven? Little wonder the deliberations were so brief.

"I'm really thrilled, but it's scary too," said the 36-year-old when she learnt she had risen to second in the world rider rankings, just 482 points adrift of Germany's Marcus Ehning.

"I never thought I'd be number 10 in the world, I never thought I'd be number five and now I'm number two and the best woman in the world.

"But it's all too mad, I just want to keep my feet on the ground and get on with it."

"The girls in the yard threw whiskey and coke over me," she said, revealing how she was congratulated when she received the news.

We'd never be that wasteful so, instead, we'll congratulate Jessica Kürten by naming her as the Irish Times/Vhi Healthcare Sports Woman for January.