The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman Award for November: Caitríona Jennings (Athletics)
When they were choosing their Ultra Runner of the Year, Athletics Ireland had as easy a job as our judges had picking their sportswoman of the month for November. For that, all concerned can thank Caitríona Jennings, who last month achieved a rare enough feat in Irish sport – she became a world-record holder.
Not any old world record either. Mere mortals would need vehicular transport of some kind to cover a distance of 100 miles. The Donegal woman chose to run it.
It was in Illinois that she ran the Tunnel Hill 100 Mile in that world-record time of 12 hours, 37 minutes and four seconds, beating the previous best mark, set in 2017, by five minutes. Remarkably, this was her debut at the distance, 60 miles the longest she had run in one go before.
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Jennings, who turned 45 in June, had already set a string of Irish records over shorter distances. Earlier this year, she broke the Irish record at the Donadea 50km National Championships and she also holds the Irish 100km record, set in 2021.
She has helped herself to multiple top-10 finishes at the Comrades Marathon, the 88km race between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, the world’s oldest ultra-marathon, and in 2022 she won the IAU 50km European Championships. Her best (regular) marathon time of 2:36.17 qualified her for the London Olympics in 2012.
She was, then, no stranger to lengthy runs, but this one beat all. Bedecked in her club colours of Letterkenny AC, Jennings averaged 7:34 minutes per mile (4:42/km) in Illinois, remaining under world record pace the entire way. She finished fourth overall and almost four hours ahead of the next best woman.
“Words can’t describe this feeling,” she said afterwards, crediting her coach Terry McConnon for driving her on towards the achievement. Not that she had much time to celebrate it, she was back to work with Aviation Capital Group, an aircraft leasing company, the next day.
Until November, Leona and Lisa Maguire were the only sisters since the awards got under way in 2004 to earn themselves a spot – lots of them – on the monthly roll of honour, but Jennings now joins her sibling, Olympic rower Sinead, on the list.
That completes our 2025 roll of honour, with December pushed in to the next cycle of awards. If you take a browse through our monthly winners below, you’ll note that it was yet another vintage year. And having a world-record holder round it off wasn’t a bad way to go.
The overall sportswoman of the year will be named on Friday, December 19th. That decision, you suspect, will be considerably trickier than the choice of our November winner.
Previous monthly winners – December 2024: Ellen Walshe (Swimming); January: Hazel Finn (Basketball); February: Lara Gillespie (Cycling); March: Kate O’Connor and Sarah Healy (Athletics); April: Aoife Wafer (Rugby); May: Katie McCabe (Soccer); June: Fiona Murtagh (Rowing); July: Katie Taylor (Boxing); August: Katie George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly (Cycling); September: Aoife O’Rourke (Boxing) and Orla Comerford (Athletics); October: Kelly Brady (Soccer).
*Recipients can only win one monthly award each year
