You might think to pick one person out in a month as a monthly winner of
a Sports Star Award, even one like this which there is nothing out of, and is
only happening to try and highlight of some females from Waterford involved in
sport is an easy one.
Think again.
Since January of this year, I have named a few females each month who
have impressed in the month just ended, and named one person who I felt that
their achievements are just that small bit above the rest.
As the months passed and more and more sports were happening the task of
picking one over the other got tougher.
For the month of August to pick one over another was the most difficult.
Each name I thought about I would say to myself ‘she has done well for
herself,’ but then I would think of someone else and I would think to myself
‘she has done well’ and would have had the same feeling about this person as I
had for the last.
Looking back over the past few months and who was selected as the person
that impressed most, many of the same names that were named in previous months
are going to crop up again, and to be honest, those that have been a previous
monthly winner and who impressed again in August, they are in with an excellent
chance of becoming the first person to be selected twice.
There are also some new names that have been noticed for their
achievements in the past month and there is also a new sport to get a mention.
For those that follow sport closely they will know that Wexford Youths
Ladies Soccer Senior Soccer team in the past month took part in a tournament in
Poland in an attempt to qualify for this year’s Women’s Champions League
Competition.
The side did remarkably well in Poland winning two of their three games,
finishing second in group seven narrowly missing out on a place in the final
stages of the competition.
What some might not be aware of is that on the Wexford Youths panel was
a number of players from Waterford.
Jessica Gleeson, a sister of Waterford Inter County Hurler Austin scored
the only goal in ‘The Youth’s’ first game in the qualifiers as they beat Gintra
Universitetas from Lithuania.
Jessica who was a part of different Waterford Camogie panels a few years
back struck a magnificent goal hitting a free kick from thirty-five metres on
sixty-seven minutes after a foul on Carol Breen who is also from Waterford.
‘The Youth’s’ second game in the qualifiers was a 6-0 loss to Polish
side Medyk Konin but they made up for that loss in their final game easily
accounting for Welsh side Cardiff Met on a 5-1 score line.
The above mentioned Carol Breen proved to be player of the match in this
game hitting a hat trick and one more for good measure with the goals coming in
the 3rd, 6th. 42th and 80th minutes. Becky
Cassin hit Waterford’s fifth goal in that game on the half hour mark.
Maria Delahunty, a member of the Waterford Intermediate Ladies Football
team was also involved with the Youths in Poland as was another Waterford
player Rachel Hutchinson.
In Athletics it was another good month for Waterford athletes.
When it comes to Athletics in Waterford its possibly fair to say that
Kelly Proper will be the one that will generate all the headlines.
August was another good month for the Ferrybank AC lady.
She travelled to Beijing with the Irish team for the World
Championships.
She may have found the going that little bit tougher than usual at the
championships but still did remarkably well finishing her heat of the 200
metres in what some might say was a disappointing sixth, but its worth
remembering that she finished in a time of 23.28 seconds, just .04 of a second
behind her seasons best time of 23.24 seconds which she ran again last month at
Ninove in Belgium.
Prior to travelling to the championships she took part in the Glohealth
National Senior Championships at the Santry Stadium where she took part in the
100 and 200 metre competitions, both of which she won, the 100 metre
competition in a time of 11.75 seconds and the 200 metre competition in a tie
of 23.81 seconds.
Its worth remembering that Waterford have more than one top class
athlete and in the same competition, just two that impressed were Sorcha Murphy
who finished joint second in the high jump with a leap of 1.65 metres while
Cora Kennedy competed in the Hammer event but was unplaced.
Show jumping is something that gets few if any mentions here, but we are
about to put that right.
The Dublin Horse Show took place at the RDS in August. While Ireland
winning the Aga Khan Cup might be the highlight of the week, its worth
remembering that there was plenty of other competitions over the course of the
week and in these Waterford was well represented.
Sarah Kate O’Donovan was the winner at the Amateur Championships on
Valenthina. She was also a winner of the same competition back in 2012 on board
Knockenpower Ginger.
At the same competition Rebecca Monaghan won the supreme Young Horse
championship with three year old filly Not a Lot, while Laura Connors won the
1.3metre young rider final on Just Jump with two seconds to spare over the rest
of the field while Gemma Phelan also had a good week at Ballsbridge winning the
five year old championship with one second to spare on the rest in the
competition while she finished fourth in the six year old championship.
I doubt few will be shocked that Gaelic Games will get a mention this
month and to be honest its very hard not to include Ladies Football and
Camogie.
Maria Delahunty has already got a mention above for playing with Wexford
Youths and gets another mention here.
She was outstanding for Waterford in their All-Ireland Quarter Final and
Semi Final wins over Sligo and Leitrim.
In the quarter final she hit 0-9 against Sligo and followed it up with
0-6 against Leitrim.
But she was not the only player to impress in the white and blue shirt
as Katie Hannon in goal was outstanding in both games and even scored a goal
from a penalty against Sligo.
Others to impress in both games included Aileen Wall who was player of
the game against Leitrim, Elaine Power, Linda Wall, Karen McGrath and Sinead
Ryan to mention but just a few.
In Camogie it was a great month.
The County Intermediate team have followed their league final win over
Laois earlier this year with an All-Ireland Final appearance against Kildare
later this month.
The sides have met already in the competition and the game resulted in a
good win for Waterford and when they clashed in the league semi final the
outcome was the same. We only have to hope now that Kildare do not make it
third time lucky on the biggest day of all.
In Waterford’s two games played in the intermediate championship last
month there was several stand out performance with the likes of Beth Carton,
Trish Jackman, Dawn Power, Aisling Power, Lorraine Bray, Niamh Rockett, Jenny
Simpson and Shona Curran again to name but a few were outstanding.
And its not just in the intermediate grade that Waterford had a month to
remember when it came to Camogie.
The Under 16’s contested a third All-Ireland Final in a row and retained
the title won last year when they beat Dublin 2-8 to 1-7 at Nenagh.
To get to the semi final Waterford had a fantastic win over Meath
winning 4-13 to 0-8 and in both games they had some fantastic performances from
the likes of Kaiesha Tobin who finished as top scorer in both games hitting 4-4
against Meath and 1-3 against Dublin, Anne Corcoran, Faye Curley, Chloe
Dempsey, Sinead Cunningham, Taylor Healy, Niamh Murphy, Aisling Madigan and
Clodagh Curran again to mention but a few.
So who did that something special in August to get them named as the
Female Sports Star of the month for August.
Any of the above could have won.
I seriously considered the likes of Trish Jackman, Maria Delahunty,
Kaiesha Tobin, Aileen Wall, Katie Hannon, Beth Carton and Carol Breen.
But for this month the winner is not from this list.
The winner this month is involved with the G.A.A. and like in previous
months has not been named yet.
I hear you say that most of the players that did stand out in August
have been named. But not all are.
What most fail to remember is that the G.A.A. is more than about hurling
and football, as well as their sister sports.
Handball is also part of the G.A.A.
History was made recently when Friary/Abbeyside/Ballinacourty (FAB)
Handball Club player Laura Keaver became the first lady from win a World
Handball Championship medal. And for good measure she also won a silver medal
at the same championships in the doubles event, at the World Handball Finals in
Calgary, Alberta, Canada recently.
To win her gold medal she bear Vera Aguier from Canada 21-1, 21-5, Linda
Tully from Roscommon 21-11, 21-14, another player from Roscommon – Linda Connolly
21-16, 18-21, 11-9 and then Natasha Coughlan from Clare 21-2, 14-21, 11-5.
To win her silver medal with her doubles partner Kristina Rude from the
USA, the pair beat Laura Mannion and Niamh Egan from Roscommon 21-1, 21-2 but
lost to the two other Roscommon players she beat in the singles, Siobhan Tully
and Linda Connolly 7-21, 14-21 in the final.
