Cumbria Sports Awards Winners 2011

28th November 2011

The talents and dedication of athletes, sports teams, coaches and sport volunteers in Cumbria were celebrated last night (Friday 25th November) at the annual Cumbria Sports Awards. Over 250 guests, including guest speaker John Bell, current England Bowls Team Manager, and former England Bowls International congratulated winners at the event held at the Low Wood Hotel, Windermere.

Organised by Active Cumbria, 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 Ben Stokes. The judging panel deliberated long and hard about this award, and the standard of nominations coming forward does increase each year. However, it is safe to say that our winner has had a truly outstanding 2011.

Our winner this year can clearly demonstrate that they are operating right at the top of their chosen sport of Cricket. This year saw our winner make his maiden England appearance in a one day international match against Ireland, following a highly successful debut season for Durham County Cricket Club.
Had it not been for a serious finger injury, he would undoubtedly have been involved in England's winter fixtures. He looks set for a bright future in all forms of the game.

The 'Be Inspired' Award was launched at the 2009 event, and will be awarded each year until 2012 to recognize the achievements of one of our category winners, and how they are contributing to the legacy of the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games in Cumbria.

The criteria for the award is simple, we are looking for the person or persons that are contributing the most to the legacy of 2012. The winner of this award demonstrated that they are promoting the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect, and the Paralympic values of courage, determination, inspiration and equality.

The winner of this award went to Kathryn Routledge, who shows these qualities in abundance, she has shown fantastic commitment and determination to take her to the level she is currently performing. She is combining her sporting activities, which includes travelling hundreds of miles each week for high level training, with her A-level studies, and she remains focused on representing Team GB in the Water Polo competition at the Olympic Games in 2016.

Jon Fletcher walked away with the Performance Award following a truly unforgettable 2011, where he won 2 Gold Medals at the World Biathle Championships in Bulgaria in September. He was victorious in the Individual Event by a massive margin of 32 seconds following a 1500m run, 200m swim and a final 1500m run. His fine achievement in the Individual event also contributed to GB winning the Team Championships.

The Team of the Year Award was presented to the team demonstrating the highest achievement within their sport. The winner this year the award went to the Arragons Cumbrian Triathlon Club, who were crowned the 2011 British Champions, a remarkable achievement for a Club that were only formed in late 2007.

The Special Award is awarded at the discretion of the Judging Panel, and this year goes to a man who has been performing at the top of his sport for a number of years. The winner of the Special Award went to Super League veteran Rob Purdham.

Rob has been plying his trade in Super League with London Broncos for over 10 years and has recently been awarded a Testimonial Match by the Rugby Football League. During this time he has played for England on a number of occasions including representation at the 2008 Rugby League World Cup in Australia.

The winner of the Service to Sport Award 2011 went to Mike Dodd. The Service to Sport Award is awarded to the person demonstrating outstanding commitment and dedication to sport over a long period of time, be it as a participant, coach, volunteer or official. This award was amongst the most difficult for the judging panel to decide upon, as there were many outstanding candidates all with vast levels of experience, commitment and passion for their sport.

The word passionate is often used to describe people's feelings for sport; Mike demonstrates this passion in abundance. It was 55 years ago when our winner first stepped into a rowing boat, and he has rarely been away from the water since. He has been a member of the Committee of Talkin Tarn Rowing Club since 1963 holding many positions including Vice Captain, Captain, and Chairman. He is also a qualified Rowing Coach and has been coaching crews for forty years with great success at regional and national regattas. One of his recent roles has seen him take on the responsibility for recruiting and developing volunteers within the Club, which he has done to great effect, ensuring that there are enough new leaders coming through to ensure the sustainability of the club well into the future.

He has also played a key role in the development of the clubs Boathouse, which this year saw the opening of a fantastic new facility, ensuring all year round rowing opportunities at Talkin Tarn.

Ruth Ward was the winner of the Volunteer of the Year Award for her work in developing the sport of Netball across the County. She has been the Voluntary Chair of the Cumbria Netball Association for two-years and in the last year has made significant strides to improve the game in the county. Her successes have included the development of a county Academy and satellite Academy, ensuring that young players get the best coaching opportunities and the chance to develop, bringing Cumbria in line with other counties. She has also worked hard to improve the numbers and quality of umpires and coaches across the county, again improving the infrastructure of the game.

Her easy, but professional manner has ensured that many other volunteers have now become involved in the county association, making it well placed to provide leadership for the sport moving forwards.

The winner of the Performance Award for People with a Disability went to Anna Nicholson, from the sport of Athletics and she has had a truly remarkable season. She has enjoyed notable success in the discus event, where she competes in the F36 classification. She has recently set a new national age group record by throwing 18.97meters, which is also an 'A' standard qualifying distance for next years' Paralympic Games. She has also been selected by UK Athletics to be part of their National Talent Squad, and recently won a silver medal at the UK School Games.

In the Junior Team of the Year category, the winners were from the world of Football, Castletown Under 10 Girls Football Team, from Penrith. They have remained undefeated all year. They won their league without losing a game, and went on to win the league cup at Brunton Park in Carlisle. They also entered the County Futsal tournament, again winning this too. This led them to the Regional Finals which they duly won. It was then to the national finals held in Birmingham, where the girls won a further 5 games to be crowned National Futsal Champions

The Coach of the Year for 2011 went to Gymnastics Coach Janet Charlton, who has been coaching gymnastics in the north of Cumbria for many years, making a significant contribution to the physical literacy of thousands of young people along the way. A Level 5 Coach, she has been instrumental in many local teams qualifying for national finals in each of the last 14 years. She has also initiated a number of local developments for young people from early years' right through to setting up opportunities for university students. She works tirelessly with a number of local schools, ensuring that the links to the Carlisle Gymnastics Club are in place for young people to move into further coaching opportunities.

The winner of the Young Sports Leader of the Year Award went to Casey Blanchard, who comes from the sport of Netball, and she has made a real difference to the development of the game in her town of Millom. A qualified coach and umpire, she has been passing on her advice to players at her school during PE lessons on a weekly basis. She has also been delivering coaching sessions in a local primary school, resulting in them winning a local qualifying event for this summers' Schoolympics Finals in Carlisle. It was at this event that our winner also showed her umpiring skills, taking charge of a number of fixtures to help with the running of this important event. She has also set up an after school netball club at her own school, as well as still finding the time to play for the Purple turtles in the Copeland Netball League. 

Junior Sports Personality of the Year Award winner went to Kathryn Routledge from the world of water polo, and has had a truly fantastic 2011. She is the captain of the GB Talent Squad and led the team to victory over Hungary for the first time ever on their way to winning the Future Olympic Hopes competition in Prague in July. She competed for the GB Team again at the Junior European Championships in August. Despite being based in Carlisle, she attends weekly training sessions at Lancaster and Liverpool, and attends monthly national squad training in Cardiff. She is working hard towards her dream of competing for Team GB at the 2016 Olympic Games.

Our winner this evening was also recently crowned Carlisle Junior Sports Personality of the Year.

The winners of the five Rising Star Awards were:
Nathan Aston, who is one step closer to his dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver after being selected for the McLaren High Performance Program, where he will join a small group of elite young racers on the McLaren scheme to help find the next generation of Formula 1 drivers for its Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. From the Dalston area near Carlisle, he caught the eye of the McLaren scouts after clinching the Formula Kart Stars Cadet Championship last year in only his second season of serious racing. His competitive career has been short, but very sharp. He first sat in a kart just three years ago after a one-off trip to an indoor circuit. But the youngster caught the bug and, after a season of stunning performances, including some scintillating displays in the wet, is now one of the top young karters in the country.

Francesca Lee comes from world of Skiing and is showing great potential after achieving some outstanding results in 2011, despite being at the lower end of a two year age category.

She is the youngest member of the England Artificial Surface Ski Squad following selection in August of this year, and is also a member of the English schools senior Ski Squad. She has achieved victories at the British Indoor Championships, the Scottish Dry Slope Championships, and the British Dry Slope Championships. She also won her age category in the Snowsport England Grand Prix series.

Emily Bolton was part of the England U15 Table Tennis team that competed in the Six Nations Championships in Germany, and was also part of the U14 Team that competed in the Home Nations event, where she finished second in the Team and individual events. Along with her playing partner, she is also national U14 Doubles Champion.
 
Our winner this evening is also the reigning Barrow Junior Sports Personality of the Year.

Adam Bartlett From Ulverston, is a member of the England Orienteering Team and competed in both the Junior Home Internationals as well as the Interland Championships.

However, it was at the World Schools Orienteering Championships in Italy in May where he achieved his most notable results, finishing runner up in the Middle distance race, and fifth in the Long distance event. These achievements are all the more remarkable when you consider that he was racing against athletes who were a year older than he is.

Matthew Salkeld, who had a liver transplant when he was just 14 months old, however this did not diminish his love for all things sport. He has competed in the annual British Transplant Games since 2001. Due to his success in the 2010 British Transplant Games our winner was selected to represent the UK in the World Transplant Games in Sweden in June 2011, competing against 53 other nations. Although still only 15 he had to register in the 18-29 age bracket in order to compete in his favoured middle distance running events. Even so he won bronze medal in the 800m event, bronze medal in the 1500m event, gold medal in the men's 4 x 400m relay event, and a gold medal as part of the men's 5k winning team. He also won gold medal in the 14-16 age group in Squash, a total haul of 3 gold medals and two bronze medals in his first world games. In addition to this he was awarded the 'Best Junior Male Athlete of the Games' award during the closing ceremony.  He is also a tremendous ambassador for the need for and the success of organ donation and transplantation.

Guest Speaker John Bell said "It was an honour to 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!"

Richard Johnston, Partnership Operations Manager at Active Cumbria 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 massive 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".