2008 Texaco Sportstars of the Year Awards Recipients Announced
Dublin, Ireland 11 November 2008 - Eight top Irish sports stars chosen to receive the 2008 Texaco Sportstars Awards in this, the 51st year of the event, have been announced.
Chosen from a shortlist of sixteen sports by sports editors representing print and broadcast media, north and south, the full line-up of this year’s Texaco award winners is:
| Jason Smyth | Athletics |
| Kenny Egan | Boxing |
| Seán Cavanagh | Gaelic Football |
| Pádraig Harrington | Golf |
| Aidan O'Brien | Horse Racing |
| Eoin Larkin | Hurling |
| Briege Corkery | Camogie & Ladies' Gaelic Football |
| Ronan O’Gara | Rugby |
Of the eight stars who will receive awards, six are being honoured for the very first time. They are Jason Smyth, Kenny Egan, Seán Cavanagh, Eoin Larkin, Briege Corkery and Ronan O’Gara.
Commenting, Enda Riney, Country Chairman, Chevron (Ireland) Limited said: ‘We are delighted that 2008 has produced such a distinguished list of winners, many of whom have achieved fame and success on the world stage. Through our awards, we are honoured to recognize those Irish sports men and women whose endeavours underline the extent to which Ireland has become a force in international competition’.
Awards will be presented at a ceremony to be held in Dublin on Wednesday, 19th November at which An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen TD will officiate. Also being presented on that evening will be the Texaco Hall of Fame Award, which goes to a prominent sports personality from the past and the Texaco Young Sportstar Award. Winners of both these awards will be announced shortly.
TEXACO SPORTSTARS OF THE YEAR 2008
Athletics: Jason Smyth
In Athletics, the award goes to Paralympian Jason Smyth. In the same manner that Usain Bolt astonished the world during the Olympic Games in Beijing with a record-breaking, double-gold sprint double, Jason Smyth replicated these successes in the Paralympics held in the same city some weeks later when two 21-year-olds – one from Jamaica, the other from Derry - left the world in their wake. If the name Jason Smyth was not on everyone’s lips before the Paralympics, his talent had been noted in the athletics world when he went to the Irish Schools Championships in Tullamore two years ago and won the sprint double. And it was only afterwards that his coach, Stephen Maguire, explained that Smyth was suffering from Stargardt’s Disease, a hereditary degenerative visual impairment that can affect central vision, though not always peripheral vision. Asked how he felt his visual impairment affected his physical performance, not surprisingly Jason said he didn’t know because it was the only way he had ever known how to run. Given his outstanding talent and his total dedication to his sport, it is now eminently possible that Jason will be setting his sights on the Olympic Games in London, and maybe the two sprint stars of Beijing 2008 will get to face the starter’s gun, side-by-side, in four years time.
Boxing: Kenny Egan
In Boxing, the award goes to Dubliner Kenny Egan. Kenny Egan had a goal early this year. He wanted to be in Beijing in August, mixing it with the cream of the world’s boxers. He failed at the first qualifier in Pescara in late February. But the determination of the man who took bronze at the European Championships in 2006 saw him through four tough encounters in Athens in April. The light heavyweight from Clondalkin was now going to China, but his target had changed. He began to focus on performing to his limits on the big stage. He wanted a medal. And as the country willed him on, he disposed of Jackson of the Virgin Islands, Muzaffer of Turkey, Silva of Brazil and Jeffries of Britain. The dream of winning a medal had changed to winning gold. And while this eluded him, he became a national hero in defeat, in the gracious way he accepted a tight result that might well have gone his way. “Deep down in my heart of hearts”, he said later, “I feel I won the fight, but that’s sport at the end of the day”. Instead he stood proudly in the ring, smiled, saluted his supporters, and took time to kiss the medal that hung from Xiaoping Zhang’s neck. Britain’s Tony Jeffries was shocked by the decision. “I think he should be walking around with the gold medal now.” But in defeat, Kenny Egan’s stature had soared, nationally and internationally, the man and the boxer.
Gaelic Football: Seán Cavanagh
In Gaelic Football, the award goes to Tyrone’s Seán Cavanagh. Mayo manager John O’Mahony felt that Tyrone was a team in decline during the National League – and he would not have been alone in expressing the view. That Tyrone walked out of Croke Park on September 21st with the Sam Maguire Cup is testament to Mickey Harte’s managerial magic and an outstanding squad of players who believed in themselves as few teams have in the history of the game. But it took a supreme performance from one player to see them through. Having scored 1-14 in the four games before the final, Seán Cavanagh epitomised all the qualities that have put him on a pedestal with the game’s greatest in a period of 26 minutes, when Kerry were threatening to rescue the game. Between Brian Dooher’s second point in the 44th minute and Enda McGinley’s in the 70th minute, Cavanagh was the only Tyrone player to score. He did so three times and each one inspired pressurised colleagues. The third point oozed class. He got possession, held the ball up until a comfortable position had been engineered and then popped it over to push Tyrone in front by a point. It was a lead they would not lose and it was Cavanagh who guided them through this match-defining period. In October, he was again instrumental in a major success, this time in Australia, where he captained the International Rules side to an outstanding win over Australia, a country that twice made efforts to attract the Moy man to their sport. His rejection of their overtures continues to enrich the game in Tyrone and nationally.
Golf: Pádraig Harrington
In Golf, the award goes to Pádraig Harrington. Is it possible young Paddy Harrington decided that one Claret Jug could not hold all the visiting ladybirds to his south County Dublin home late last summer, and asked Daddy for another earlier this year? Or is it a case that Pádraig has recently developed a Major case of Tunnel Vision? Most of us would go with the second view – even though the country might have been satisfied with the British Open title of 2007 as a lifetime’s highlight from their favourite golfing son. But 2008 emphasised that Pádraig’s game has moved onto a higher plateau and the steel that is required on the back nine on the final day of a major is present in abundance. Locked in battle with Greg Norman and Ian Poulter in the British Open at Royal Birkdale, Pádraig moved to the top of the leader board with birdies on the 13th and 15th holes on the Sunday before a piercing five wood to the par five 17th landed perfectly and rolled to within three feet of the cup to set up an eagle. His view, “that you can’t have a big enough lead going down the 18th in a Major”, had been pretty well taken care of. Not satisfied with back-to-back British Opens, Pádraig produced a stunning final 36 holes at Oakland Hills in the USPGA Championship with two rounds of 66, the culmination of which was a superb final nine holes of 32, which saw off the challenge of his Carnoustie rival, Sergio Garcia and Ben Curtis. Not since Tommy Armour in 1930 did a European win the final major of the year and Pádraig was only the fourth player in history to win the British Open and USPGA titles in the one season.
Horse Racing: Aidan O'Brien
In Horse Racing, the award goes to trainer Aidan O'Brien. Aidan O’Brien was tutored by Jim Bolger for nearly four years at the Coolcullen stable in County Carlow. When the time came to depart, to move on to another challenge, Jim was sorry to see him leave, so much so that he subsequently said: “I would have done anything to hold on to him, short of marrying him”. Those words have a certain irony this year as Jim Bolger had outstanding claims to be the Texaco award winner for 2008 – but it is his pupil who will be coming up tonight to receive it. The reality is that no trainer may ever have a year to match the one just concluded for Aidan. And while he puts it all down to the work of what he refers to as ‘the team’ in Ballydoyle and so many talented horses, he is the motivator, the guiding light. Take his year in Ireland. He made a clean sweep of all the classics with Halfway to Heaven, Henrythenavigator, Frozen Fire, Moonstone and Septimus. And after Henrythenavigator went on to win the English 2,000 Guineas, he then took a raiding party to Royal Ascot and won five of the prestigious purses, and that included Yeats winning the Gold Cup for the third successive year, only the second time this has been achieved in the history of the sport. There followed the disappointment of Henrythenavigator being pipped by Raven’s Pass in the Breeders Cup Classic, having mastered the hot-shot Curlin, but then out came the indomitable Yates again to take the French St Leger and conclude a remarkable season of 22 Group victories for Ballydoyle.
Hurling: Eoin Larkin
In Hurling, the award goes to Kilkenny hurler Eoin Larkin. Now 24, Eoin Larkin joined the Kilkenny panel in 2005 and has been a steady work in progress since. Three All Ireland senior medals to complement his Under 21 and minor successes suggests he has absorbed Brian Cody’s training manual like a Grade A student. But the flying half-forward really came into his own this season, laying down an early marker in the All Ireland final by cutting through the Waterford defence and picking out an unmarked Eddie Brennan to drive home a goal. It was the beginning of the end. Kilkenny romped home and Larkin got a well-deserved goal in the second half. In fact ever since he came back from a six-month stint of UN peacekeeping duties in Kosovo, he has been creating and scoring at will. In June, not long after returning, he shot four points on the trot against Offaly in the Leinster semi-final - brilliant cameo moments which suggested that he must have taken a camán and sliotar on overseas duties. And if life in the 3rd Battalion does not weigh too heavily on his time, one feels there is much more to come from a quiet man of the game who is officially the GAA’s Hurler of the Year. A quiet man, but no longer unsung.
Camogie & Ladies' Gaelic Football: Briege Corkery
In Ladies' Gaelic Football the award goes to Cork player Briege Corkery. “Each blade of grass in Croke Park knows her name, and I think she covered them twice today.” Those words of Cork’s camogie manager Denise Cronin refer to Briege Corkery and were uttered after her county’s All Ireland final victory in September. Words that tumbled in the euphoria of victory, you might think, but such a supposition would be wrong. Although a youthful 21, Briege has played for her county in the last four All Ireland senior camogie finals, winning in 2005 and 2006, and again this year. But that is only half the story. In those same four years she has been an outstanding performer for the county’s football team - during which they have won four consecutive All Ireland senior titles. If the summer seemed to be all about the possibility of three-in-a-row for the Kerry footballers, it was the Cork girls who closed the deal. In doing so Briege had to play camogie and football semi-finals within the space of 24 hours, and the finals within a fortnight. A yearly schedule that would have many a professional sports person complaining of the demands on their mind and body is taken in her stride. The mind boggles at what Briege could conceivably win at senior level if her career continues on its present path. Rest assured, though, that her dedication to camogie and football, and her pursuit of excellence, ensures that her familiarity with the grass in Croke Park pitch can only be enhanced with the passing years.
Rugby: Ronan O’Gara
In Rugby, the award goes to Munster and Ireland international Ronan O’Gara. To define Ronan O'Gara by numbers would alight on things like he is Ireland's most capped outhalf, that he requires 21 points to reach 1,000 in the Heineken Cup, that on three occasions he has been voted the Rugby Writers of Ireland Player of the Year … or maybe even that he was the first Irishman to score a try at Croke Park. Those statistics only touch the surface of the qualities he has brought to Presentation College Cork, Cork Constitution, UCC, Munster, Ireland and the Lions in a wonderful career with hopefully a few more chapters to pen, despite his decision to write an autobiography without a fleck of grey in his hair. This year he stood alone in Irish rugby for many reasons, primarily his role in Munster’s Heineken Cup march which was crowned with 11 of the 16 points in the final against Toulouse. Equally important, though, was his guiding influence throughout the series, in particular the two games against Wasps and the away match in Llanelli. And if further confirmation of an outstanding year is required, well, just ask Munster’s Red Army.
