Award is the first of its kind

Azmera Gebrezgi became the first winner of the Irish Times Mitsubishi Electric Sportswoman of the Month Award, presented at Dublin's Mansion House last night.

This award is intended to highlight and honour Irish women in sport and the winner will be selected monthly by a panel of four. The monthly winners also become automatic nominees for the title of Sportswoman of the Year, to be announced at the end of the year.

These awards, the first of their kind in Ireland, besides honouring individuals, are a recognition of the increasing importance of women's sport at a time when women's Gaelic football is growing apace and the Camogie association is celebrating its centenary this year.

Gebrezgi is just 18 years old and recently led the Irish junior women to team victory in the Celtic Cup cross country in Scotland. She arrived in Ireland two years to run for Eritrea in the World Cross Country championship, was granted asylum and is now studying for her Leaving Certificate.

Speaking at the awards launch the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, said: "On the international stage of high performance over the past decade, some of our leading and most successful sportspersons have been women.

"The achievements of Sonia O'Sullivan, Catherina McKiernan and Gillian O'Sullivan in athletics and Sinéad Jennings in rowing in the recent past have caught the nation's imagination.

"Media coverage of women's sport in general has greatly improved over the past decade but there is still ample room for improvement.

"The Sportswoman of the Year Award is a great innovation."

Also speaking at the launch Maeve Donovan, Managing Director of The Irish Times, said: "I'm delighted to announce that The Irish Times and Mitsubishi Electric are embarking on a new venture to recognise and honour the achievements of women in sport.

"It is our goal, through these awards, to ensure that the best in Irish women's sport across a huge range of disciplines will be honoured and held up as the type of examples we would like our young generation to emulate."

RTÉ's Greg Allen - who is joined on the panel of four independent judges by Lindie Naughton (Evening Herald), Mary Hannigan (The Irish Times) and Ronan Ó Coisdealbha (TG4) - hosted the launch.

Also present at the Mansion House was the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Royston Brady, and Fergus Madigan, President of Mitsubishi, who said: "Mitsubishi Electric is delighted to be involved in this award with an esteemed partner such as The Irish Times.

"We as a company have a proud tradition of involvement in Irish sport; these associations leave a positive and long-lasting impression and stem from our company philosophy of 'doing well by doing good'."