Cumbria Sport Awards Winners 2007!

23rd November 2007

The heroes of sport in Cumbria have been praised at the 24^th annual Cumbria Sports Awards. Over 300 guests, including guest speaker Olympic medal winning swimmer Steve Parry, congratulated winners at the event on the 23rd November at the Low Wood Hotel, Windermere.

Organised by Cumbria Sport Partnership, the event recognises 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 goes to yachts woman Anna McKenzie. The judging panel deliberated long and hard about this award, and the standard of nominations coming forward does increase each year. However, our winner has had a truly outstanding 2007. Anna was at the helm of a two-handed Mirror dinghy, which won the World Mirror Sailing Championships in South Africa earlier in the year. In the process she became the first female Mirror World Champion, and along with her partner became the first ever all-woman team to win a world title in a two-handed ISAF Open Dinghy Class, as well as the youngest in history.

At the age of just 18, Anna is our youngest ever Sports Personality of the Year award winner!

Cumbria Ladies Hockey Team walked away with the Performance Award for their fine performance that saw Cumbria crowned CountyChampions for the first time, and also saw a team from the north of England win the title for the first time in 13 years.

From the world of Rallying, the award for the Team of the Year goes to M-Sport who have just won the World Rally Championships.

The Special Award is given by the Judging Panel to a nominee who stands out from all other nominations received. This year, that person was Daymon Johnstone from Workington. Despite having had a kidney transplant, Daymon has not let this stand in his way of becoming a fine sportsman, but also an outstanding volunteer in sport who has given many hours of service to sport. Daymon has had a great year, winning a gold medal for French Bowls at the World Transport Games in Thailand, as well as a bronze in the adult section of the sport and a bronze in squash.

The Service to Sport Award went to Jeffrey Wadsworth who has been involved in sport in the Barrow-in-Furness area for over 40 years.

Tony Tomlinson who works tirelessly to develop rugby league around Workington and Maryport walked away with the Volunteer of the Year Award.

The winner of the Performance Award for People with a Disability goes to Paula Johnson. Paula has been playing wheelchair basketball for the Furness Falcons Wheelchair Basketball Team for the last 10 years and has just qualified for the GB squad to play in the Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

Junior Team of the Year Award went to Whitehaven School Under 16 Rugby League. This team won the North West Counties Cup, which qualified them for the National Finals, which they also won, and then went on to be crowned European Champions.

The Coach of the Year for 2007 is Gary Hewer. During 2007 Gary has resurrected the fortunes of his local rugby league club following their 5 year absence, coaching them to league and cup success. He was also part of the coaching team that took Whitehaven School Rugby League Team to European success in Serbia.

This years Junior Sports Personality of the Year is 14 year old Laura Park. Laura has had a fantastic year, winning 7 National and British titles in fell running, cross country, and athletics. She is extremely committed, training 5 or 6 times each week, and her ambition is to run for Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics.

The winners of the five Rising Star Awards are:

Amanda Donaldson who at the age of 17 is the youngest ever female rugby league player to play for the England Ladies Team.

Ben Stokes from Cockermouth, who has excelled in his chosen sport of cricket.

Gregg McNally who is Captain of his amateur rugby league club Kells, as well as WhitehavenSchool under 16 Rugby League. He has recently signed professional forms with Whitehaven Rugby League Club.

Jim Atkinson has recently signed for Scottish SPL side Gretna Football club. This year he represented England in the Danone Nations Cup, which is the World Cup for Under 12 teams.

Nathan Hogg from Kendal is ranked number 1 in his weight category in Great Britain for Judo, and is in the final qualifying stages for the European Championships.

Olympic Medal winner Steve Parry 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. Listening to the winner’s achievement was really inspiring and I am sure that it has encouraged more people to get involved in 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”.