Award Winners Announced
1st December 2003by Paul Rushton
The listing was posted by WheelPower - British Wheelchair Sport
The British Wheelchair Sports Foundation today crowned a number of wheelchair athletes at the British Wheelchair Sports Awards 2003 gala dinner at Wokefield Park near Reading, Berks on Saturday 29th November 2003 sponsored partly for the first time by BFP Electrical Limited.
Hosted by Master of Ceremonies, BBC Sport’s Paul Dickenson, Awards were presented to Best Newcomer to Wheelchair Sport, Team of the Year in a Team Sport and Team Event, Coach of the Year, Two Media Awards and the prestigious Service and Lifetime Awards.
British Wheelchair Sports Foundation’s Chairman, Kevan Baker welcomed guests to the 8th annual Awards heralding them as “a Celebration of Wheelchair Sport”, going on to say “the British Wheelchair Sports Awards provide BWSF with the opportunity to recognise the achievements of our wheelchair athletes, the contribution of the many people involved in wheelchair sport at all levels and to celebrate the work of British Wheelchair Sports Foundation in providing sporting opportunities at all levels for people with disabilities”
The first award presented was the Lords Taverners’ Endeavour Award to 15 year old Sebastian Shaw from Herne Hill in London who had overcome paralysis as a result of a routine holiday injection which caused a reaction in his auto immune system to get back to taking part in sport at the BWSF National Junior Games in October.
Best Newcomer to Wheelchair Sport, presented by 5 time Paralympian and former BWSF Lifetime Achievement Winner John Harris, went to Kay Forshaw from Wheelchair Tennis.
Kay has made great progress since the beginning of last year and has overcome self doubt to prove to herself and others that she has the ability and potential to go all the way in her chosen sport.
Hard work with her coaches has resulted in some fantastic performances as well as some good results during 2003.
Winning her first National title in May she defeated the former champion clearly stating she had arrived.
Victory in the North East Tournament in Sunderland and progression to the final of the Austrian Open and semi-final of the Slovakian Open and Czech Open improved her ranking. Most recently she reached the final of the Nottingham Indoor event which saw her become GB number 1 and number 20 in the World in singles and 25 in doubles.
A member of the GB Women’s team which finished fourth at the World Team Cup in Poland in June the winner has undoubted talent for the future and is feared by all others going into the Paralympic year.
Coach of the Year Award was presented to British Women’s Powerlifting Coach, Jon Amos. Jon, a former elite performer himself, performed to the highest standard.
Since becoming a Coach the winner has dedicated himself to the success of his athletes, ensuring that they have the correct training and environment to breed success.
He continues to work at all levels from grass roots to elite and is always encouraging, supportive and enthusiastic about his sport.
A mark of a good coach is how much the athletes under your charge improve. All of the winners athletes continue to improve under his expert guidance.
Under his care Britain’s Paralympic athletes are preparing for Athens and have performed to their full potential winning medals at the European Championships in 2003, including one World Record performance.
Most recently he was awarded the prestigious Disabled Coach of the Year Award by Sport England.
The Media Coverage Award was presented to David Gordon, Head of BBC Sport and Tony Garrett, Disability Programmes Manager for BBC Sport for the outstanding new BBC Sport Disability Website which since launching in 2003 has consistently and accurately reported on a wide range of disability sports events, issues and personalities. Coverage has been extremely positive and gives anyone looking for stories and the latest results and a point of contact.
Although a new website it demonstrates a high level of commitment to the disability sports movement and there is already a commitment for the future and in particular in the lead up to the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens
The Media Award, recognising the outstanding reporting and contribution by a publication or media group to disability sport over a long period and the important role this plays in raising the profile to a wider audience was presented to Gareth Davies on behalf of the Daily Telegraph.
The Telegraph was recognised as a publication which has lead the way in reporting of disability sport for more than ten years.
Despite this it continues to cover a wide range of sports and the issues surrounding them, including some of the political issues, often influencing opinion on what are difficult subjects within disability sport.
During 2003 the coverage continued to be of the highest quality with the writing of the senior correspondent always entertaining and insightful.
The Team Event Award for the outstanding achievement for teams with an individual element combining players or participants in a Team Event was won by James Rawson and Neil Robinson, the Great Britain Class 3 Table Tennis Team who won the European Championships gold medal in 2003.
Added to this the two athletes also won several other team events together and with other partners as well as several singles events.
An incredible understanding has developed between the two players who instinctively work together to achieve success.
In 1996 they teamed up to win a bronze medal at the Paralympic Games in Atlanta, and in Sydney they went all the way winning the gold medal. Added to this tally of medals were silver medals in the 2001 European Championships and 2002 World Championships. The pair are surely a tip for a medal in Athens next year.
The Team Sport Award was presented by John Scott, Director of International Relations and Major Events for UK Sport to The Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby Team. The award recognises the outstanding achievement of a team where participants interact at the same time within a Team Sport.
The GB Wheelchair Rugby Team won the European Championship gold in 2003 where victory was secured by the narrowest of margins over hosts Belgium 32-31 thus securing a place in the Paralympic Games and lifting them to 4th in the World.
The Outstanding Female Individual Achievement Award was won by Powerlifting European, World and Paralympic Champion, Emma Brown. Emma has won the award on three occasions and this year broke her own World Record on no less than six occasions consolidating her position atop the World Ranking list in her class.
Added to that she won the gold medal at the European Championships in Bratislava thus continuing a nine year unbeaten record.
The Outstanding Male Individual Achievement Award was presented to Peter Norfolk, Wheelchair Tennis by BBC Sports commentator, Clare Balding.
At the end of 2003 Peter Norfolk finished as number one on the World Ranking having started the year at number 7 by winning several tournament including the French Open, the PTR/Roho and Lakeshore Challenge in USA, as well as winning two of the three grand slam equivalents titles at the British and US Open Championships.
Undoubtedly “the” player to beat in the Quad division which makes its debut at the Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004.
Norfolk was also a member of the GB Team GB which finished runners up to USA in a nail biting doubles decider at the Invacare World Team Cup in Poland.
The Service to Wheelchair Sport, presented by The Hon Mark Vestey, President of the British Wheelchair Sports Foundation was presented to lifelong supporter and President of British Wheelchair Bowls, Tony Allen for his outstanding service and contribution to the development of wheelchair bowls in the UK.
As President of BWBA Tony Allen has helped integrate bowls into able bodied clubs as well as raising funds and awareness of the abilities of disabled bowlers.
The final Award for Lifetime Achievement recognises the tremendous achievement of an athlete in wheelchair sport over his or her lifetime.
Presented by last years winner, Jane Blackburn this prestigious Award went to Archery’s Sandy Gregory.
Gregory was first introduced to wheelchair sport 25 years ago and was hooked by his chosen sport Archery, straight away concentrating all his efforts in becoming a skilled and proficient performer.
He started gaining recognition at national level after attending training sessions at Stoke Mandeville in the early 1980’s and was very soon a contender for international selection.
His first International competition was in 1984 when selected for the GB team at the Paralympic Games, held that year in Stoke Mandeville, and won a bronze in the team event.
His consistent performances have maintained a top 15 World Ranking and made him a feature in many GB teams over the years. Notable successes came with a team gold medal at the European Championships in France in 1995, team bronze at the World Championships in Czech Republic in 2001 and a second team gold at the European Championships in Poland in 2002.
A totally committed performer, our lifetime winner practised five days a week near his home in Glasgow. The demands for strength, fitness, stamina and mental toughness placed on him during an archery competition have all formed part of a rigorous training regime and improvements to technique are still being made, even in the last year in attempts to maintain his high standards.
As an enthusiastic member of the Archery Association he is actively involved in encouraging new archers and his wicked sense of humour and great personality have made him popular within the sport both in the UK and throughout the World.
Having already reached the qualifying standard for Athens he is preparing arduously for his 6th Paralympic Games. Despite this he still has time to pop into his local archery club at Bishops Brigg where he helps able-bodied archers with their shooting and equipment.
This year he took part in and won the Scottish Championships a proud moment in his outstanding career.
Unfortunately Sandy has been ill recently and was unable to travel down from Scotland to collect the award in person.
For more information and photographs from the event contact:
Martin McElhatton
01296 395995 or 07802 313794
martin.mcelhatton@bwsf.org.uk
Photos available from:
Graham Bool Photography
01371 851189 or 07958 338448
gbool@aol.com