SPORTS AWARD: Six months into the Irish Times/Mitsubishi Electric Sports Woman of the Year awards and we've had winners from basketball (Jillian Aherne), hockey (Linda Caulfield), Gaelic football (Cora Staunton), golf (Claire Coughlan) and athletics (Azmera Gebrezgi and Sonia O'Sullivan).
Maths aren't the strong point of the panel of judges but by our calculations one-third of our winners to date have been from athletics. There was, then, a steely determination in the deliberations for July's award: the winner should, if at all possible, be anything but an athlete.
So, the Irish Times/Mitsubishi Electric Sports Woman for July is Maria McCambridge. The athlete.
We tried hard to discriminate against the Dundrum South Dublin runner and her sporting discipline. We even ignored the rapture etched on her face in that photo published after she ran quite the most stirring of races to beat Una English in the 5,000 metres at the national championships last month - the one where she appeared to be beaten, only to arise from the dead, find a gear not known to man and beat her Dublin City Harriers rival by mere fractions of a second.
We tried, too, to gloss over McCambridge's feat, at the end of last month, of running well inside the A-standard qualifying time for Athens in the 5,000 metres at the Heusden meeting in Belgium (15 minutes 5.86 seconds - making her the third-fastest Irishwoman ever over the distance) and the initial anguish that accompanied the achievement because it came after the deadline imposed by the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI).
But, by then, we the judges were waving a white flag; Maria McCambridge had just too memorable a July to ignore.
"A rollercoaster of a month," she said when we interrupted her packing for Athens on Monday night. Packing for Athens? "I can hardly believe it," she laughed, "it's really only beginning to sink in now but I just can't wait, it's a dream."
The dream, of course, had taken on a nightmarish quality when the OCI initially insisted there would no extensions, under any circumstances, to their deadline. McCambridge was left feeling it simply was not her destiny to make it to an Olympic Games - she also missed going to Sydney in 2000 despite beating the A standard by 17 seconds (three other Irish women had run faster that summer and only they were selected).
"I tried not to give up hope," said the 29-year-old, "but when Athletics Ireland rang me on the Wednesday morning to say their appeal had been denied that was the moment when I thought it was all over. But then the phone calls began, 'don't give up hope', all these people fighting for me. The support I received was actually overwhelming."
A direct appeal to OCI president Pat Hickey proved successful, Hickey accepting McCambridge's explanation that she had been unable to get a quality 5,000 metres before the OCI deadline.
"It was overwhelming when I got the news. I couldn't actually believe it in the end . . . ah, incredible," she said. "Now I just want to justify everyone's support, show my appreciation. I just hope I can do myself justice. I believe I can make the final, I'd be chuffed if I could.
"All along my goal has been to make the final and try and run well in it. I just want to come away knowing I did my best."
McCambridge left for the athletics training camp in Cyprus yesterday, where she will complete her preparations for Athens. While nothing could diminish the thrill of it all for her she admitted the news about Cathal Lombard's positive test for EPO was hard to bear.
"It's just gut-wrenching really; I'm distraught about it," she said.
"So disappointing, it was a very sad day for athletics. I don't know, I just don't understand it. You just have to accept what your body naturally has and try to get there through sheer hard work and determination. Just do the best with what you have, that's all."
