Perry's Everest-like rise continues in blossoming career

Irish Times/VHI Sportswoman of the year: A few years back the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA) was putting together a profile of Madeline Perry for its website and they asked her what ambitions she had.

"To go to base camp of Mount Everest and to reach the top 10 in the world," she replied.

Well, one ambition down, one to go, although the Banbridge player's blossoming squash career may just result in that trip to the Himalayas having to be put on hold. For now.

Back in February the 29-year-old realised her top-10 ambition, breaking into the elite of world squash after a frustrating 11 months of being stuck at 12, and then 11, in the rankings.

Since then, as if liberated by achieving her target, Perry has been in the form of her life, rising to sixth in the latest WISPA list.

She has, to say the least, come a long way since first registering in the world rankings in September 1998, at joint 102nd.

"And she was delighted with that," laughs Audrey Perry, mother of Madeline and a stalwart of Irish squash.

"But then she made the top 100, the top 50, the top 20 and, I suppose, every time you climb that bit higher you want more.

"We were thrilled for her when she made the top 10, it meant so much to her. We thought maybe she'd go up a place in the next rankings but then she rang, and said, 'Mum, I've just seen it on the internet, I'm up to six!'"

A succession of victories beyond her seeding have lifted Perry to her career-high ranking, starting with a win over world number three Rachael Grinham of Australia in the quarter-finals of the Kuala Lumpur Open, in straight sets, in just 35 minutes.

She followed that by also making the semi-finals of the Tournament of Champions in New York, beating Vicky Botwright, the fifth-ranked player in the world, in the last eight, before losing to the American number one Natalie Grainger in a five-set final.

From there she travelled to Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games, reaching the quarter-finals, where she lost to the eventual gold-medal winner, Natalie Grinham, sister of Rachael.

While her Northern Ireland team-mates were winding down and enjoying the closing ceremony in Melbourne, Perry was on a flight back to Dublin to defend her Irish Open title at Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club, which she did with ease.

Perry, then, is the winner of the Irish Times/Vhi Healthcare Sports Woman Award for March.

Her travels since the turn of the year have taken her to Asia, North America, Australia and back to Europe; so much time has she spent on flights that her mother has become her representative on earth. English-based, Perry is on her travels again soon, but this time home to Banbridge for a break, during which she will spend some time at the Northern Ireland Sports Institute at Jordanstown in preparation for her return to the circuit.

"We had all the family home at Christmas and on Christmas Eve Madeline was in the sitting room packing her sports bag. We said to her, 'What are you doing?', and she said, 'Going training, of course'.

"We couldn't believe it. On Christmas Eve! But she's been that way since she was a child. If she threw herself into something she did it wholeheartedly - although, being her mother, I suppose I would say that."

Much as she would like to laugh off her daughter's ambition to throw herself wholeheartedly into reaching Mount Everest's base camp, Audrey has learnt from bitter experience not to dismiss any such notions.

"'Don't be daft, Mum,' she said to me a few years ago when I told her I was worried she could have an accident when she was surfing in Cornwall - next thing I get a phone call from a local hospital to say she was hit by a stray surfboard and had broken her jaw. Mind you, it didn't stop her, that's just the way she is."

After a hectic start to the year Perry, after taking some time out, will study the squash calendar and work out her schedule for the rest of the year. The highlight, though, will be in November when Belfast hosts the World Open.

"I suppose there will be a lot of pressure on her, playing on her home ground, but pressure doesn't seem to bother her these days, she seems to thrive on it," said Audrey, whose only concern now is that if her daughter reaches the summit of the world squash rankings she may turn her attention to another summit. Base camp might not quite be lofty enough.

Overall contenders so far

Jessica Kürten (Equestrian): The Antrim-born rider came agonisingly close to winning our 2005 Sportswomen of the Year award, but was pipped by Cork's All-Ireland double winner Briege Corkery. Kürten, though, began 2006 as she ended 2005, by winning our monthly award, after a remarkable run of seven successive international wins, including victory in the world's richest Grand Prix in Dubai.

That brilliant consistency lifted the 36-year-old to second in the world rider rankings, just 482 points behind Germany's Marcus Ehning. Since then Kürten has not only retained her position in the rankings but has narrowed Ehning's lead to 124 points.

Derval O'Rourke (Athletics): The 25-year-old from Douglas, Cork, was the winner of our February award after a dazzling start to the year, during which she ran her first sub-eight-second 60 metres hurdles, setting an Irish national record, and lowered the mark a week later at the Irish Indoor Championships in Belfast.

When we spoke to her before she departed for the World Indoor Championships in Moscow she told us, "I just want to run as fast as I can go and see what happens, if I do that I'll be happy with myself, regardless of the result".

Well, she ran faster than she ever did before, lowering her Irish record yet again to 7.84 seconds, becoming the first Irish woman to win a World Indoor gold medal. Even in the unlikely event of O'Rourke putting her feet up for the rest of the year she is already a serious contender for our overall prize.

* Each sportswoman will be eligible for just one monthly award in 2006 but her achievements through the year will be taken into account by the panel of judges when the decision on who wins the overall award is made.