The Irish Independent is seeking a public vote on who will be it’s SportStar of the year. The shortlist is drawn from all those who have won the paper’s SportStar of the week since January and the mix of individuals is a good snapshot of how our national sporting year has developed.
Despite what was percieved as being a stellar year for hurling, it is Gaelic Football that comes out on top in the list of weekly winners with a total of 15 awards. Hurling comes in third with 11.
The two gaelic games are split by horse racing with a total of 12 awards spread throughout the year and including a likely favourite for the overall title in Tony McCoy whose exploits in passing 4,000 winners in National Hunt Racing are likely to stand out for generations rather than just one week or year.
Rugby comes just outside the podium places with six weekly winners. Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell are among them but the most notable factor is that of the six, no fewer than three are drawn from the Women’s Grand Slam winning team with Alison Miller, Joy Neville and Niamh Briggs all gaining recognition.
Athletics comes next and continues the focus on Women’s sport with Fionnuala Britton picking up two of the sport’s five awards and Kelly Proper another one alongside Rob Heffernan’s World Gold winning exploits from August.
Cycling also hit five with Martyn Irvine, Dan Martin and Nicholas Roche leading the way.
Soccer comes next with four, one being for Stephanie Roche, scoroer of the goal for Peamount United that has so far been viewed over 2.5 million times on You Tube.
The return on investment that can still be gained from sponsoring in Women’s sport was in evidence yesterday morning when eFlow were using social media to highlight to coverage of their support for Raheny United that appeared in Women’s National League coverage in the Daily Mail newspaper.
Boxing with three, Golf and Camogie with one each complete the 62 total weekly winners over the course of eleven months. Voting is open until Tuesday December 10th but is only possible through posting a coupon obtained in a copy of the paper.
** Those who missed yesterday’s supplement on the making of the Irish Sports Council’s ‘Journey’ campaign can request a copy of the publication which our friends at Atomic Sports Agency have said they will send out in the post. Simply Contact Us today with your name and postal address and we will pass on the details.
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