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Sam Bennett may have missed out on the RTE Sports Person of the Year Award – and been disrespected on the television ceremony – but there have been no such issues for him in another prestigious annual sports awards.
The Carrick-on-Suir cyclist has been named Irish
Independent Sports Star of the Year.
He was up against a huge number of athletes across all sports because the Irish Independent awards a 'sports star of the week' award through the year and each one is then put forward for the annual award.
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The pleasing thing about the awards is that it involves a
reader vote, meaning Bennett was the people’s choice.
He had been shortlisted for the RTE annual award, though it was won by boxing legend Katie Taylor. Oisin O’Callaghan, the Irish rider who won the junior downhill Word Championships last year, won the RTE Young Sports Person of the Year Award.
Bennett took seven victories last year, despite the
pandemic hitting racing so hard, with two of those victories coming on the Tour
de France, where he also won the points jersey.
There was a real sense when Bennett rode so well in the French tour, and got so much media attention at home, that he had finally broken through in the minds of Irish people and gotten the recognition due to him. The Irish Independent award confirms that theory.
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