Phil Healy wins Echo Sportswoman of the Year award at a special celebration of Cork talent
Gerry and Phil Healy representing their daughter Phil, the Echo Sportswoman of the Year, winner with Marie Keating (left) Hall of Fame winner; Grainne McGuinness, editor The Echo, and Ogla O'Sullivan, Outstanding Achievement award at The Echo Women in Sport Awards at the Metropole Hotel. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
It was a night of celebration as The Echo honoured Cork women for their contribution to sport on Thursday.
The annual Echo Women in Sport Sportswoman of the Year awards night was held at the Metropole Hotel where monthly winners gathered to see who would win the overall award.
Stars from athletics, camogie, boxing, ladies football and hockey were among the monthly nominees from which an overall winner was picked.
It was no great surprise that the Ballineen bullet, Phil Healy, was the winner of the award.
Healy won’t forget 2024 in a hurry as she won a silver relay medal at the European Championships and finished fourth at the Olympics, agonisingly close to a bronze medal.
“It was an unbelievable year for me and the other of the relay team, they all played a huge part in our success,” said Phil, “to win a silver medal was unreal and then to go on and perform so well at the Olympics at Paris is something I will never forget.
“I would like to thank The Echo for this award and also congratulate the other two winners and all the monthly ones for their success as well."
The Hall of Fame winner was shocked but delighted to have been honoured on the night.
Her 50-year-plus association with draghunting began for Marie when her husband, Christy, trained the legendary Cartgate Laddie four-time champion hound.
“Cartgate was a special hound that will always have a place in our hearts as he basically had everything that a hound needs to have to be a champion,” Marie said.
“I was shocked when my name was called out as the Hall of Fame winners and I would like to thank all involved with The Echo for this great honour.
“I have loved my time being involved in draghunting and hopefully it will continue for many more years."
The Keating family for many years dominated the sport with quality hounds like Montego Bay, John Henry and Mason to name a few as their love for their dogs was always clear to see.
“I suppose we were lucky as some very good hounds crossed our path but for us the welfare of our hounds was the number one priority like the majority of trainers in our sport,” added Marie.
The Outstanding Achievement award winner, Olga, was also delighted to have been honoured. When her husband Colm ed away in July 2020, the Ballincollig native, who was born in Russia, wanted to honour his life.
And that she did in style, becoming the first Irish person, and third individual overall, to complete the MOWS crossing from Madieria to Desertas.
She did the swim, a straight line distance of 26.6km, between the two islands in 8:43:11, and she followed that up by taking part in a 20.5km relay between Fastnet to Baltimore last December.
“It was great to be honoured by The Echo and to get this award means so much to me."
Guest speaker on the night was Juliet Murphy, who captained Cork to their first All-Ireland senior ladies football title in 2005, the first of 11 titles for the county.
She was a key member of the team for many years and will go down as one of the greatest players in the game. Murphy is also a former winner of the overall award and spoke highly of all the winners of the year as well as congratulating the three winners and the monthly recipients.
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