SPORTSWOMAN OF THE MONTH FEBRUARY/JESSICA KÜRTEN:IT'S A fair indication of Jessica Kürten's consistency, at the very highest level of her sport, that in this, the seventh year of our awards, she has been chosen as sportswoman of the month for the seventh time.
Until February she was tied with fellow Ulster woman Madeline Perry, the pair having won six awards each since we started out in 2004, but Kürten’s exceptional form at the start of the year moves her one ahead of our leading squash professional – and two clear of Katie Taylor (boxing) and Nina Carberry (horse racing).
The 40-year-old Antrim woman came close enough to taking our January award when she won the Leipzig leg of the World Cup qualifying series for the third consecutive year, triumphing in a 16-way jump-off with Castle Forbes Libertina who was only returning to action after a seven-month injury lay-off.
A month later the pair did it again, this time at the Swedish World Cup Qualifier in Gothenburg, a victory that lifted Kürten to third in the World Cup rankings and guaranteed her place in the World Cup final in Geneva next month.
In a nine-horse jump-off Kürten’s compatriot Dermott Lennon, like Perry a native of Banbridge, Co Down, set the fastest time, one no one came close to matching until Kürten and Libertina arrived.
As the report put it, “Kürten nearly brought the roof down at the Scandinavium arena with a rip-roaring ride from Libertina that secured their second victory of the 2009/2010 Rolex FEI World Cup Jumping season.”
Ireland, impressively, finished with two riders in the top three, Lennon taking third after Germany’s Marco Kutscher, who leads the World Cup standings, beat his time.
Again, though, it was Kürten who took the victory, one that earned her €37,000.
“This is an outstanding win for Jessica and Libertina, both horse and rider are real winners – a superstar combination,” Team Ireland Equestrian show jumping manager Robert Splaine said of horse and rider.
“Libertina has been in amazing form since she came back from injury,” said Kürten after her second World Cup win of the season.
“I’ll now be trying to take her to the World Cup final and then hopefully to the Global Champions’ Tour.”
With Libertina back in action Kürten is now climbing the world rankings again, the March list putting her at 15, making her the second-highest ranked female rider in the world.
Seven awards, then, in seven years for Kürten, confirming that she remains one of Ireland’s most outstanding sportswomen.
JANUARY
Aoife Hoey and Claire Bergin (Bobsleigh).
The pair became the first Irish competitors to qualify for the women's Olympic bobsleigh event where they finished 17th out of 21 teams in Vancouver.
