Athletes among the honours (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Athletes among the honours

10:19am Thursday 19th November 2009 in

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EAST Lancashire athletes were strongly represented at the Lancashire Sports Awards held last week in.

A host of sport stars including ex-England footballer Jimmy Armfield and Olympic boxer Courtney Fry were among the guests.

Fourteen local authorities from around the county had already hosted their own awards competition including Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Chorley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Ribble Valley and Rossendale with the winners in each of the six categories going forward to the Lancashire final.

Blackburn Harriers received two nominations for the Rising Star Award. Beckie Taylor represented Blackburn with Darwen after becoming the English Schools’ Fell Champion and helping Westholme School win the Championship Trophy at the same event. She went on to help the England U16 girls’ team take gold at the home international.

Luke Tasker from Waddington was the nominee for the Ribble Valley having been selected to represent Great Britain’s U16s at the Europa Cup Modern Pentathlon in the Czech Republic. Luke is also a member of the Pioneer79 Swimming Club and the Ribble Valley Pentathlon Team.

A third local finalist, Natalie Haythornthwaite, who competes for Pendle Athletic Club, was chosen by Pendle for her netball skills.

John Schofield from Blackburn and Eloise Manger of Chorley were finalists for the Special Recognition Award.

John, one of the founders of Blackburn Road Runners, runs a computerised race results service and website which are invaluable for local athletes. All of the profits have been donated to charity running into tens of thousands of pounds.

Eloise (24) is a talented young javelin thrower who is the current Northern Champion and runner-up in the UK County Championships. She is also a great role model others at Chorley AC and Chorley Wildcats. Both Blackburn Harriers and Hyndburn AC were nominated for the Community Club of the Year.

Congratulations to Bob Welfare of Preston Harriers, who was nominated for the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, but the winners were Carol and Mick Parkinson of Accrington Gymnastics Club who were profiled in the Lancashire Telegraph’s Grassroots supplement this week.

Look out for the other local winners – including athletes – being similarly featured in the coming weeks.