Taylor made for top award

Sportswoman of the Year Award:Shortly after lunchtime yesterday, Katie Taylor was announced as The Irish Times/Vhi Healthcare Sportswoman of the Year, and no one was about to argue with that. Pound-for-pound Taylor is now ranked the best women's amateur boxer in the world and this was another title she may well have been prepared to fight for.

In reality it was never going to be even a split decision, despite the undoubted quality of the other 11 monthly award winners. The only mild disappointment was that women's boxing is not an Olympic sport, because if it was, no one could argue either against Taylor bringing home the gold medal from Beijing next August.

Appearing undaunted by either the spotlight or the significance of her award, and instead looking the steely character she surely is, the 21-year-old from Bray calmly reflected on what was another memorable year in her short but stunning career.

In October she won her third successive European Championship title in Denmark, adding to her gold from the World Championship in 2006, and that ultimately earned her the overall award for 2007.

"It's a great honour to win this award," said Taylor. "Especially considering all the other monthly winners here. I think the standard has definitely been higher than ever. Of course I'm delighted to accept it."

Taylor's priority for 2008 will be to defend her world title in Norway later in the year, but that's far from it. She's equally adept at women's soccer: "Ireland have an important match coming up in Italy next month," she added. "And I hope to be part of the Irish panel for that game." Again, there won't be much argument there.

There were, as Taylor recognised, plenty of high achievers among the other monthly award winners, most of whom could have won the outright award in any other year. Eleven sports were represented, and from riding winners at Cheltenham, to being up there with the very finest at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, to winning camogie and Gaelic football All-Ireland titles at Croke Park, it was nothing less than an eventful year for each of the monthly award winners.

Many of them had been at this stage before, including the national hammer-throw record-holder Eileen O'Keeffe and the national 400-metre record-holder Joanne Cuddihy - who collected the July and August awards respectively.

Two could not make the award ceremony because of overseas competition, the February winner, Chloe Magee, competing at a badminton tournament in Sweden and the December winner, Madeline Perry, even farther away at a squash tournament in Hong Kong. Two others, Valerie Mulcahy and Jessica Kürten, were also absent.

Nina Carberry was another former monthly winner when in 2005 she became the first woman jockey since 1987 to win a professional race at the Cheltenham Festival, and in March last year she was back in the winner's enclosure at Cheltenham after she won the Sporting Index Handicap Chase on the Enda Bolger-trained Heads On the Ground, thus earning the March award.

Among the first-time winners were the Cavan twins Lisa and Leona Maguire, who at just 12 performed superbly in two tournaments featuring Ireland's leading amateur golfers, Lisa reaching the semi-finals of the Irish Close at Lahinch and Leona becoming the youngest winner of the Hermitage Scratch Cup.

Also rewarded for the first time was Emma Byrne from Kildare, who plays in goal for the Arsenal's women's team, who won every competition they entered in 2006-2007, and also the Republic of Ireland.

In presenting each of the awards, the Minister for Education and guest of honour Mary Hanafin spoke of that depth of sporting talent.

"All of you are our sportswomen of the year," she said, "for what you've achieved, and also for your commitment and dedication to your county or your country.

"And in some ways I can relate to your achievements, in that I've also had to run fast, thrown a few punches, and had a few hammers thrown at me, and it's still about being first past the post come election time."

The most surprising absentee was last year's overall winner, Derval O'Rourke, who endured a disappointing 2007, but again no one would argue against seeing her back among the monthly winners next year.

Each of the monthly winners, and the overall winner, was decided by the judging panel of Mary Hannigan of The Irish Times, sports journalist Lindie Naughton, and RTÉ sports commentator Greg Allen, who as well as agreeing on the winner, concurred that the standard throughout the 12 months was higher than in any of the four years of the awards scheme.

The other previous winners were jockey Cathy Gannon (2004) and camogie and Gaelic football's Briege Corkery (2005).