THE IRISH TIMES/IRISH SPORTS COUNCIL SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR: Mary Hannigansalutes the achievements during July of two of Ireland's most promising young talents
FOR FEAR of seeming like shilly-shallying ditherers, incapable of making tough decisions, the judges for these awards brooded at length over which teenager should be named Sportswoman of the Month for July, athlete Ciara Mageean or swimmer Gráinne Murphy.
Despite a steely determination to ruthlessly plump for one or the other, in the end a white flag was raised. The conclusion was that the quality of their performances last month simply made the pair inseparable – so we have ourselves joint winners.
There were strong similarities between Mageean and Murphy’s achievements in July, when both were busy winning medals and breaking long-standing records.
Already in May, Mageean, from Portaferry in Co Down, had broken Sonia O’Sullivan’s 22 year-old national junior 800 metres record at the Irish Schools Championships, where she represented Assumption College of Ballynahinch. She took silver in that event at the World Youth Championships in Italy, finishing behind Cherono Koech of Kenya.
Mageean, who is also a gifted camogie player and daughter of former Down hurler Chris, smashed her own junior record for the distance, her time of two minutes 3.07 seconds one of the fastest by an Irish woman of any age, one that put the 17-year-old seventh on the Irish all-time list.
Later in the month she travelled to Finland for the European Youth Olympics and went one better in the 1,500 metres, winning gold with a time that beat the championship record set by Gabriela Szabo, O’Sullivan’s foe of old, and the Irish junior record that had stood to Natalie Davey since 1991.
It is, we think, safe to say that Mageean belongs in the “one to watch” category. As does Murphy.
The 16-year-old from Ballinaboola, Co Wexford, is based at the Swim Ireland High Performance Centre at the University of Limerick where she trains for over 20 hours a week. That level of commitment produced spectacular rewards at the European Junior Championships in Prague where three gold medals and one bronze made her the most successful swimmer at the event.
Murphy, the first Irish swimmer to win European junior gold, broke two championship records, her time in the 400 metres individual medley bettering the long-standing mark set by the current Olympic champion, Yana Klochkova.
“Gráinne is now ranked 23 in the world in the 400 individual medley,” said Peter Banks, the new high performance director in Irish swimming.
“Not in junior rankings. In the world.”
She also took gold in the 200 metres and 800 metres medleys, her bronze in the 1,500 metres freestyle coming just an hour after she broke Klochkova’s record.
Later in the month Murphy was record-breaking again, this time in the heats of the 200 metres individual medley at the senior World Championships in Rome. Her time broke the gold medal-winning Irish record set by Michelle Smith DeBruin at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
In all, the schoolgirl set two European junior, four Irish senior and 10 Irish junior records in July.
So now you can understand why we had joint winners for our July award. Ciara Mageean and Gráinne Murphy left us with little choice but to honour them.
Monthly award winners so far
January: Jessica Kurten(Equestrian). A string of top five finishes, including two successive World Cup Qualifier wins, gave Kurten an exceptional start to the year.
February: Mary Cullen(Athletics). The Sligo runner broke Sonia O'Sullivan's 1997 3,000 metres indoor record at Boston University before going on to win bronze at the same distance at the European Indoor Championships in Turin.
March: Nina Carberry(Horse racing) and Derval O'Rourke(Athletics). Once again Carberry triumphed at Cheltenham, winning the Cross Country Chase on Garde Champetre, while O'Rourke won bronze at the European Indoor Championships in Turin in the 60-metres hurdles.
April: Leona Maguire(Golf). The 14-year-old from Cavan won the French International Under-21 Amateur Championship before leading from start to finish to become the youngest ever winner of the Scottish Open Amateur Championship at Troon.
May: Lisa Maguire(Golf). A month after her twin sister took our April award Lisa made it a two-in-a-row for the Maguires when she retained the Leitrim Cup and succeeded Leona as Irish Close champion.
June: Katie Taylor(Boxing). Our 2007 and 2008 Sportswoman of the Year successfully defended her European Union Championship title in Bulgaria, scoring 33 points in her three bouts and conceding just four. It was Taylor's 35th victory in a row.
July: Ciara Mageean(Athletics) and Gráinne Murphy(Swimming).
Each sportswoman is eligible for just one monthly award in 2009 but her achievements through the year will be taken into account by the judges when the decision on the overall winner is made.
