Setting the standard in fine style

IRISH TIMES/IRISH SPORTS COUNCIL SPORTSWOMEN AWARD FOR JANUARY: Jessica Kürten (Equestrian):HARDLY HAD Katie Taylor been crowned our 2008 Sportswoman of the Year, for the second year running, than we were off again, choosing the first of 2009's leading achievers. A familiar name it is too, a woman who has already won five monthly awards since we got under way in 2004: Jessica Kürten.

The 39-year-old from Cullybackey, who is based in Germany, had an exceptional start to the year, with the highlights in a string of top-five finishes being two successive World Cup Qualifier wins in a week.

She first triumphed in Leipzig on Castle Forbes Libertina, then repeated that success at another five-star show in Zurich the following weekend. Those results lifted Kürten to seventh on the World Cup leaderboard, well within sight of qualifying for the World Cup finals in Las Vegas in April, where the top 18 riders will compete for the title.

In Leipzig, Kürten and Libertina were one of 13 combinations to make it through to the jump-off, with the favourite to win the contest being Marcus Ehning, the German world number three.

“This was Libertina’s first show since Geneva (in early December), so we had decided not to ride like maniacs,” said Kürten.

Indeed, horse and rider kept their respective heads, going out 11th in the jump-off and posting a time that proved unbeatable. The reward? Some €33,000 and 20 World Cup points.

A week later Kürten and Libertina found themselves in another jump-off, this time at the World Cup Qualifier in Zurich.

The competition in this jump-off was even fiercer, 15 horse and rider combinations battling it out for the 20 qualifying points. But, again, Kürten set a time that no rider could match. Finland’s Mikael Forsten came closest by finishing one-and-a-half seconds slower than the Irish woman.

For her troubles, Kürten, apart from the points, collected a Mercedes car and a Rolex watch.

But she might well trade both for an improvement on last year’s share of fourth place at the World Cup finals in Gottenburg, or, better still, 2006’s second-place finish behind Ehning in Kuala Lumpur, her only previous appearances in the prestigious event.

Having lost some ground last year, during which she served a suspension after her horse Castle Forbes Maike’s positive result for a banned substance, Kürten has climbed back up to sixth in the world rankings: she is on 2,800 points, just 73 short of the fourth-ranked rider, Germany’s Ludger Beerbaum.

Kürten, then, kickstarts our 2009 awards in fine style, and if she maintains her January form she will, undoubtedly, be a contender for the overall award come the end of December.

Highlights of the 2008 Sports Woman of the Year Awards, held in Dublin last month, will be shown on Setanta on Monday, February 23rd (2.30), Wednesday the 25th (3.30) and Friday the 27th (8.30).

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.