Source:  News Release/Colin McClelland

KURTEN WINS SPORTSWOMAN OF THE MONTH AWARD FOR EIGHTH TIME

 IRISH show jumper Jessica Kurten has won the the Irish Times/Irish Sports Council Sportswoman of the Month Award for January, following her first major Grand Prix win of 2012 at Amsterdam's four-star show in the Netherlands last month.

It is Kurten's eighth time to win the award since they began in 2004. The Antrim-born rider will now battle it out with the other monthly winners at the end of 2012 to be named the Sportswoman of the Year.

In a nine horse jump-off at Amsterdam she beat World Equestrian Games gold medallist Gerco Schroder by three-hundredths of a second, just three months after she rode the same horse, Vincente, to third at a three-star show in Germany.

She was excited then about his potential, but even more convinced after Amsterdam that "the horse definitely can go all the way".

"I see this as a great omen, this is my first show this year and I only moved to Paris two weeks ago. It is a new adventure and it is a nice way to start it," said Kurten after her success, which earned her a prize of €24,750.

The Irish rider has recently moved from her former German location and is now based at the yard of businessman and fellow show jumper Edouard de Rothschild near Paris.

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