2009 was a golden year for women’s sport. Here are some of the people and special moments we think deserve recognition.

Beth Tweddle is an athlete who is riding high after an incredibly successful 2009 – she’s become a world champion for the second time in her career, took two European titles, was nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and has even got her own range of Beth Tweddle leotards hitting the shops in January.

On top of that her achievement of winning the gold for her floor performance, after having fallen in her signature event the asymetric bars shows true grit and for this we make Beth Tweddle our Sportswoman of 2009.

The England women’s cricket team are our Team Of The Year. They have had an amazing year taking the ICC World Cup and ICC World Twenty20 titles on top of defeating Australia 4-0 in the NatWest Series and a draw in the one-off Test to retain the Ashes.

Our Coach of the year is Hope Powell who steered the England women to a fantastic final place in the 2009 European Football Championship.

“It’s usually quite difficult keeping up the motivation levels. We experienced that in 2005 and 2007 – to come back and go again was a really big and demanding challenge. But I think that the experience of that final and being so close, the girls are really raring to go again for 2010. We have set our targets, we’re trying to go from silver to gold and that’s our next ambition.” Hope Powell, England women’s football head coach

Sporting heroines of 2009

There have been many fantastic performances in 2009 and we hope that you have enjoyed reading about them on Sportsister. Here’s our list of the most notable performances of the year, we know you will feel that some women have been left off the list so please do let us know your thoughts. And if your sport is not being represented on sportsister then please let your association know about us and we will endeavour to do all we can to cover it.

Lizzie Armitstead, Wendy Houvenaghel and Joanna Rowsell – world champion team pursuit cyclists

Laura Blakeman, Louise Donington and Lizzie Neave - world champion team slalom canoeists

Julie Dibens – world champion Xterra off-road triathlete

Jenny Duncalf – number two in the world squash rankings

England women’s football team – European Championship finalists

England women’s rugby team – had their first victory over world champions New Zealand in eight years

Jessica Ennis – world champion heptathlete

Katherine Grainger – switched rowing disciplines and won a silver at the world championships

Hilary Lister – the first disabled woman to sail solo around Britain

Catriona Matthew - women’s British Open champion

Keri-Anne Payne – world champion 10km open water swimmer

Victoria Pendleton – world champion sprint cyclist

Eleanor Simmonds – world champion short course swimmer

Gemma Spofforth - world champion 100m backstroke swimmer

Claire Taylor – the first female ever to be named as Wisden Cricketer of The Year in the awards’ 120 year history

Heather Watson – US Open girls champion

Chrissie Wellington - world champion ironman

Danielle Sellwood, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine