Because there’s little that our Sportswoman of the Year judges relish more than Irish sporting success, there was a time when a month like August would have brought them no end of glee. But now that they’re entrusted with the onerous task of choosing the outstanding Irish sportswoman in any given month, August prompted exchanges along the lines of: “Would the medals ever stop?”
Just a flavour: You had Mona McSharry helping herself to a silver and two bronze at swimming’s European Championships; there was Zoe Hyde winning gold in the double sculls at rowing’s World Championships, with Fiona Murtagh taking silver in the single sculls; and we had Rhasidat Adeleke winning European 200m silver.
And all that before mentioning two zingers of All-Ireland finals: Galway winning their first senior football title since 2004 by beating Kerry by a point, and Cork regaining the Camogie title from Galway in front of a record crowd of 33,419.
McSharry, Hyde, Murtagh, Adeleke or any of the outstanding performers from those Galway and Cork teams would have been shoo-ins for the August award in any other year, but the month proved to be the gift that just wouldn’t stop giving.
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The only small mercy for our beleaguered judges was that European heptathlon champion Kate O’Connor, our reigning Sportswoman of the Year, was already on our roll of honour for the year, having won the March award – and you can only win one monthly award in any year (although all your achievements through the 12 months are taken into account when it comes to choosing the overall award).
Requests for the award to be split between eight-ish sportswomen were turned down – once again the unkind accusation being that the judges were indecisive – but permission for a double award was, hallelujah, granted.
Take a bow, Ellen Walshe and Margaret (Mags) Cremen.
Walshe, you’ll recall, had a magical European Swimming Aquatic Championships, winning gold in both the 200m and 400m individual medley finals. She set a new Irish record in the 400m IM to secure her first medal at a major long-course international championships.
A brilliant display it was too by the Dubliner, who executed her race with precision, moving into third after the backstroke before taking second and then hunting down long-time leader Amalie Smith over the final 100 metres.
And she repeated the feat in the 200m IM when she broke another Irish record, the 24-year-old summoning a late surge to pass Italy’s Anita Gastaldi and Belgium’s Roos Van Otterdijk to snatch gold, her underwater acceleration off the final turn a sight to behold.
And she came mightily close to adding another medal to her collection when she broke her own Irish record to finish fourth in the 200m butterfly final – a mere 0.19 seconds short of a place on the podium.
Cremen was a bit medal hungry herself at the World Rowing Championships. First, the Cork woman teamed up with Hyde to strike gold in the double sculls in Amsterdam. And no more than Walshe in her code, they produced an exceptional finish to overtake the Dutch crew of Roos de Jong and Benthe Boonstra in the final 300 metres.
Two days later, Cremen teamed up with Konan Pazzaia to take silver in the mixed double sculls, the pair holding off the United States in a sprint finish to take second behind the Netherland’s De Jong and Simon van Dorp.
A steady flow of medals, then, throughout the month. Blissful news for Irish sports fans, not so great for our judges. And to be honest, September is already looking to be a bit of a challenge too. Would the medals ever stop?
Previous monthly winners – December: Lauren Walsh (Golf); January: Michelle Clarke (Basketball); February: Sarah Lavin (Athletics); March: Kate O’Connor (Athletics); April: Eve McMahon (Sailing); May: Siobhán Rutledge (Horse racing); June: Caitlin Hayes (Soccer); July: Beth Coulter (Golf).
