30/11/2009 - Cumbria Sports Awards Winners 2009

The talents and dedication of athletes, sports teams, coaches and sport volunteers in Cumbria were celebrated last night (Friday 27th November) at the annual Cumbria Sports Awards. Nearly 300 guests, including former Olympic and World Triple Jump Champion Jonathan Edwards, and Olympic Silver Medal winning Rower, Alison Mowbray, congratulated winners at the event held at the Low Wood Hotel, Windermere. 

Organised by Cumbria Sport Partnership, the awards recognise the outstanding talents, commitment and successes of teams and individuals throughout Cumbria who are involved in sport.

This year’s winner of the prestigious Sports Personality of the Year Award went to Judo ace, David Hughes. The judging panel deliberated long and hard about this award, with the standard of nominations and achievements increasing each year. However, this years winner has had a truly outstanding 2009, having recently been crowned as World Masters Judo Champion in the World Master Athlete Games in Atlanta, USA. 

During the year he also retained the British Championship in the M6 – 81Kg category, an event he has now dominated for the last three years.

A new Be Inspired Award  was presented for the first time, and has been introduced to recognise the achievements of people from Cumbria in promoting the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect, and the Paralympic values of courage, determination, inspiration and equality. The award will be made in each of the three years leading to London 2012, and the recipient is picked from the winners of all of the other sports awards categories. The first winner of the award was Dean Kelly, who has shown tremendous drive, commitment, and inspiration in his quest to improve as an all round sportsman, and who was rewarded at the recently held Dwarf World Games with four Gold and Three Silver Medals.

Cumbria Union of Golf Clubs  walked away with the Performance Award following a fantastic season which saw them not only win the Northern Counties League, but also win the Northern Region Strokeplay Championship, a win which enabled them to represent the North in the English Championships for the first time in their history.

The 2009 Team of the Year Award went to Barrow Raiders Rugby League Club after they triumphed in the National League 1 Championship, and then went on to complete a fantastic double by winning the Championship Grand Final in a thrilling match against Halifax.

The Special Award can be given by the Judging Panel to a nominee who stands out from all other nominations received. This year the Judging Panel awarded a posthumous award for the first time, marking the contribution the late Derek Lacey made to many lives across the County over many years. Derek, who commentated on Carlisle United matches all over the Country for BBC Radio Cumbria had his own unique style that endeared him to the listener, and the Judging Panel felt that it was right to recognise the affection he was held in right across the county.

The winner of the Service to Sport Award 2009 went to Mike Liptrot. Mike has been involved in judo for forty years, firstly as a competitor; in his younger days he represented Great Britain as a player for 10 years, winning medals in many open events. He then turned his attention to coaching and developing young people through judo. He is still involved in coaching English talent and regularly travels across Europe and beyond with national teams. Latterly, his passion for judo has found its true outlet in his home town of Kendal, where he has been the driving force behind establishing Kendal DoJo as one of the best in the Country. Over the years, he has been instrumental in attracting funding to develop the facilities to such an extent that they have now been selected as a Training Camp venue for London 2012. 

Niall Holmes  was the winner of the Volunteer of the Year Award, and comes from Haverigg. He has already gained a great deal of recognition for his efforts over the last 12 months. He has recently been awarded the ECB National Young Volunteer of the Year Award for 2009, held at Lords Cricket Ground at the start of October. Prior to this he was awarded the Cumbria Cricket Board young volunteer of the year award and last year he became the youngest winner of Haverigg Cricket Club’s club person of the year trophy. He is involved in many different aspects of helping the Club function, including scoring, website developments, and pitch management, to being the Club’s DJ at social functions.

The winner of the Performance Award for People with a Disability went to Dean Kelly. In August this year, he returned a four-time champion from the World Dwarf Games. Having represented Great Britain at the games, held in Belfast, he brought home an impressive haul of four gold and three silver medals.   After a lot of training in the build up to the games, he bagged gold medals in the 100m, 200m, relay and football. His silver medals came in power lifting, javelin and discus. 

In the Junior Team of the Year category, the winners were Duddon Youth Wild Water Racing Team, who have this year been crowned double British Champions. They have won both the British Junior Wild Water Racing Championships as well as the British Wavehopper Championships. They have been competing against Clubs with far better facilities and resources than they have, and the dedication and commitment they have shown has been rewarded with some marvellous performances during the year.

The Coach of the Year for 2009 went to Athletics Coach Stephen Hughes. Stephen is a Level 2 Athletics Coach, and has certainly made an impact on his current squad of Cumbrian High Jumpers. As the Coach for the Cumbria Schools Squad, he has this year had three high jumpers in the finals of the English Schools Athletics Championships; between them his athletes have set 35 personal bests over the last 12 months, with all 3 moving into the top ten of the North West Rankings. 

A new award category was established for the first time, to recognize the valuable contribution young sports leaders make to improving the sporting offer in clubs and schools across the county each year. 

The inaugural winner of the Young Sports Leader of the Year Award was Jemma Bell, from Ulverston, who is a young lady who participates in the Step Into Sport programme and has undertaken over 200 hours in volunteering work in a variety of different settings throughout the community. This has gained her a gold award in this programme. As well as her hard work in schools, she has also worked at Summer Camps and after school sports clubs. 

Because of her many hours of volunteering and dedication, she was selected by the Furness School Sport Partnership to attend a Step Into Sport volunteering academy at Loughborough University. On her return she gave a speech to Barrow's young people encouraging them to give volunteering a go. She was also selected to attend a National Young Leaders Camp held at Rugby School during the summer holidays. Whilst there, she won a top leadership award. 

During her leadership and volunteering activities, Jemma has gained a number of sports qualifications, enhancing her skills along the way. She is one of Ulverston Victoria High School's Senior Sport Ambassadors, and at the moment she is heading up a small group of 6th form students dedicated to increasing sporting opportunities for year 7 pupils. 

Junior Sports Personality of the Year Award winner was golfer Sebastian Crookall-Nixon. On a personal level he was crowned England Under 16 Golf Champion for the second successive year, becoming only the second golfer ever to do so. He was selected to represent and captain England at Under 16 level, and was selected to play in the European Young Masters Event in Paris, where he finished tied 7th against the best young golfers from all over Europe. 

Following his successes at Under 16 level he was called up by England Under 18’s to play in the Home Internationals, and then to represent Great Britain & Ireland against the Continent of Europe in the Jacque Leglise Trophy at Ganton Golf Club, where he was instrumental in his teams victory.

As well as this, he was also part of a three man team representing Workington Golf Club that won the National Team Championships, and has also been an integral member of the highly successful Cumbria Team throughout the season.

He is widely tipped to be a Walker Cup player within the next few years, and has already been identified by Titleist as one of the hottest young properties in golf.

The winners of the five Rising Star Awards were: 

Ryan Shaw,  Rugby League, who was selected to play for England Under 16’s against France in April and scored two tries in a 20 – 6 victory. He signed for Warrington Wolves in January 2009 after being identified as one of the top 16 year old prospects in the country, and in his first season with their Academy Team he scoried19 tries in 18 games, finishing as top try scorer. Further recognition has come from England & Warrington Coach Tony Smith, who has called our winner up to the Wolves 1st Team Training Squad for the coming season.

Fraser Minnican  is making a name for himself in the world of swimming. He has been a member of Barrow Amateur Swimming Club for eight years. During 2009 he qualified for the British National Age Group Championships in all of the different 13 events, where he was crowned National Champion in the 13 year old 200 meter Individual Medley. He also won a silver medal in the 400meter Individual Medley and was a finalist in four other events.

He has already been selected for the ASA Regional Talent Development Programme in 2010 as well as being in the England Schools Squad for the International Schools Championships in March 2010. He is the current holder of 31 County Age Group records within Cumbria. 

Abbie Hetherington  has had an exceptional year in her sport of athletics. She has had an outstanding year both on the track and in cross country events. On the track, her achievements have included winning the Scottish National 800 meter Championships, reaching the final of the English Schools 1500 meter Championships, as well as winning the County and North of England 1500 meter Championships. 

Her Cross Country season was even more successful, with individual victories in the National Schools Cup whilst representing her school, as well as victories in the Gateshead International Cross Country and the Liverpool National ‘McCain Challenge’ Series Cross Country Event. She went on to finish a creditable 7th place in the English Schools Cross Country Finals and was selected to run for England in the Home Countries fixture, where she finished 6th overall. 

Maxwell O’Hara  comes from the world of Orienteering. He represented England at the 2009 World Schools Orienteering Championships in Spain, where he had a fantastic event. He finished in 7th place in the Middle Distance race against competitors from all over the world, which only made him even more determined to push on in the long distance event. He led the long distance event from start to finish and picked up the individual Gold Medal.     

James Knox  is another from the world of athletics, and more particularly cross country and fell running. He has had a remarkable year in which he has won The National Under 13 Cross Country Championship, The English Uphill Championship, as well as being crowned English Fell Running Association Champion and English Schools Fell Running Champion. 

Guest Speaker Alison Mowbray said “It was an honourto attend the Cumbria Sports Awards and celebrate the great achievements in sport throughout Cumbria. I am really impressed with the standard of talent in Cumbria and would especially like to praise this years rising stars that I am sure will go on to achieve great things in their chosen sport!”

Eddie Edge, Partnership Director at Cumbria Sport said “The Awards were a superb event and an excellent opportunity to celebrate the enormous effort and talents of the sporting stars of Cumbria. We had some excellent nominations for the awards this year, and I know that our judging panel had a real task to choose all this years deserving winners. It just goes to show what great talent and dedication to sport that we have in the county. The support of the media, all of the Local Authorities and several major commercial organisations continue to make these awards a missive success, acknowledging the quality of our major sports performers and our emerging talent, as well as recognising the very important part played by volunteers and coaches in Cumbria”. 

For more information, contact Richard Johnston, Business Operations Manager at Cumbria Sport Partnership on 01228 221255 or email richard.johnston@cumbriacc.gov.uk. 

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Photos available from Emma Martin – Cumbria Sport Partnership 01228 221263 / 07717320573 emma.martin@cumbriacc.gov.uk