SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR:IT HAD already been a memorable summer for Irish sportswomen, the highlight being Derval O'Rourke's silver at the European Championships in Barcelona. But then along came August and our judges began to wonder if they'd have to move in to triple or quadruple award territory.
The month gave us Katie Taylor’s third consecutive gold medal at the European Union boxing championships in Hungary; the start of Ireland’s rugby World Cup campaign, which included their fine pool win over the United States; Galway and Wexford’s All-Ireland semi-final victories in camogie, and Dublin’s advance to the football final, where they will meet the winners of the replay between Kerry and Tyrone.
Plenty of potential award winners there, then.
But in the end it was the achievements of Gráinne Murphy and Madeline Perry that prompted the judges to make their second double award of the year, after our Olympic bobsleigh team of Aoife Hoey and Claire Bergin back in January.
In July of last year Murphy won her first monthly award when the then 16-year-old swimmer demonstrated her potential, in some style, by winning three gold medals and one bronze at the European Junior Championships. We suspected it wouldn’t be long before she was on our list of winners again, but perhaps not as a silver medallist in the senior European Championships before her 18th birthday.
Before that outstanding feat in Budapest, the Wexford girl had finished seventh in the 400 metres individual medley final and just missed out on bronze in the 800m freestyle, by an agonising 0.05 seconds. In the 1,500m freestyle, though, she posted the second fastest time in the world this year to take silver. She also cut a further eight seconds off the Irish record she had set in the heats – 26 seconds in two swims.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Madeline Perry was advancing towards the final of the Australian Open, one of the major tournaments in squash, beating world number two Jenny Duncalf in the semi-finals with a performance she described as the best of her career.
Played on an all-glass court at Canberra’s Royal Theatre, the final proved to be something of a thriller, with the 33-year-old from Banbridge taking a two-game lead against Alison Waters, before the English player rallied to level the match.
When she won two match balls in the decisive game, at 10-9 and 11-10, Waters, the world number four, looked set for victory, but Perry held her nerve and fought back to become the first Irish woman to win the Australian title.
It was the seventh tour title of Perry’s career, but by far the most prestigious. Already at six in the world rankings, she is on course to break in to the top five for the first time.
And just to complete a superb spell, she won her fourth Irish Open title in Dublin last weekend by beating former world number one Vanessa Atkinson in straight games in the final.
We have ourselves two more contenders for the 2010 Sportswoman of the Year award.
THE LIST SO FAR
January: Aoife Hoey and Claire Bergin (bobsleigh).
February: Jessica Kürten (equestrian).
March: Katie Walsh (horse racing).
April: Dora Gorman (soccer).
May: Valerie Mulcahy (Gaelic football).
June: Danielle McVeigh (golf).
July: Derval O'Rourke (athletics).
