Silver medal a fitting reward for determined fighter

Irish Times/Irish Sports Council Sportswomen Award For August - OLIVE LOUGHNANE (Athletics):IT WAS precisely a year ago that we first added Olive Loughnane's name to our roll of honour after the 33-year-old Galway woman produced Ireland's best result in track and field at the Olympic Games, when she finished seventh in the 20km walk.

So buoyed was she by that performance, in which she knocked 93 seconds off her personal best and finished just one minute and 14 seconds behind the gold-medal winner, Loughnane announced her intention to stay on for London 2012, convinced that she hadn’t yet neared her peak.

In light of the form she produced at last month’s World Championships, that decision to target London 2012 seems like a wise one.

Before last month just three Irish athletes had won World Championship medals – Eamonn Coghlan (gold in 1983), Sonia O’Sullivan (silver in 1993 and gold in 1995) and Gillian O’Sullivan (silver in 2003), also in the 20km walk.

By the time Loughnane reached the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin she’d joined the club, finishing just 49 seconds behind defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Olga Kaniskina to take silver.

When the race got under way it was 31 degrees, warming up as the athletes made their way around the course. “At one stage it got a bit scary, when about five people had gone on ahead of me,” said Loughnane, “but I just kept working. Pushing, pushing.

“I didn’t even realise there were people around me. I was just focused on pushing as hard as I could. But last year was the bar. And I knew I was stronger again.”

In the end she held off the challenge of China’s Hong Liu with 12 seconds to spare to take her first major championship medal, walking a season’s best of 1:28.58 – Kaniskina’s winning time was 1:28.09.

“I always know I’m strong towards the end. I’d the fastest second 10km in Beijing last year, and I wasn’t going to let that go to waste here, without bringing something home,” she said, having kept her promise to her three-year-old daughter Eimear, back home with her grandparents in Cork, that she would have a medal for her when she returned.

She is, she said when we spoke to her yesterday, almost back down to earth after last month’s exploits, busy with various commitments, including promotional work in Dublin today with The Irish Heart Foundation.

The hard work goes on, though. “It’s just a question of keeping it going, not easing up,” she said.

“It was a fantastic day, one I’ll always remember, but it just gives you a taste for more. So, no, no letting up just yet.” The ultimate target, then, is to be in the best shape of her life going in to the London Games. “I think I can continue to improve,” she said after Berlin. “But what will be, will be. Inevitably I’m going to be under a little more pressure, like from you guys (the press). I’m going to do everything I can to be in shape, but you never know what is going to happen.”

Whatever happens, that medal from Berlin was fitting reward for the determination shown by Loughnane, not least when she had to fight her way back to fitness after suffering from a chronic iron deficiency following the birth of her daughter. But, as she puts it herself, “I’ve always been a fighter”.

A prize fighter now.

Monthly awards 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). The teenagers had a July to remember, Mageean winning silver in the 800m at the World Youth Championships and then gold in the 1500m European Youth Olympics where she broke the Championship record and the Irish junior record that had stood since 1991. Murphy, meanwhile, was the most successful swimmer at the European Junior Championships, winning three gold medals and one bronze, breaking the Irish record set by Michelle Smith DeBruin at the 1996 Olympic Games.

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.