Sports Personality Awards 2002/03
Disability – Individual
The winner of this award won the Scottish Singles championship in 2001 and skipped the Scottish Pairs wining team in 2002, his third successive year of doing so. He qualified to play for Scotland in the British Blind Sport Championships, qualifying in top place having won all of his games. In April last year, in Paisley, he was the gold medal winner in the UK Singles. From the sport of blind bowls
Harry Harris
Disability – Club or Team
The winner of this award is a club celebrating its 25th year of supporting swimmers with disabilities and special needs. While the very purpose of such a club is not only about winning competitions, they still picked up a number of gold, silver and bronze medals at National competition and hold their own club gala. The club is also heavily involved in remedial and recreational swimming and in the social and community side of the sport. The winner is
The Dolphin Club
Veteran
Even by the standards of previous years, the entries in this category have been impressive. In veteran sport in general and particularly in athletics, there can be few towns or cities in the UK that have had as proud a recent record as Falkirk. In third place is an athlete, Scottish Indoor Champion in the Male 40 category at 800m and 1500m; also taking silver in the 400m. In the British Indoor Championships he took bronze in the 1500m. In third place
Alex Bryce
In second place is a man who almost defines the word veteran. In a season hampered by injury he still managed to win three gold’s at the British Veterans Indoors (400m, 800m & 5000m) and three at the Scottish Veterans (400m, 800m and 1500m). He only able to compete in three half marathons last year, but was still able to consistently beat 2 hours in each. In second place
Hugh McGinlay
The winner of the veteran category is another athlete, one who again competed at the very top of the world stage. She took the gold medal in the world masters championships in Italy. She was actually the first British runner home in any age group and the only British runner to win gold at the event. She set a new British 10k road race record and can still compete at senior, as well as veteran level, at that distance as she proved when winning the East of Scotland Championships. The winner is
Janette Stevenson
Service to Sport
The winner of the service to sport award has given over 30 years service to his club and his sport, as an athlete, coach and in various roles on the committee. He is very active in encouraging new people to take up running and in organising cross-country races. In a recent event that he organised, over 200 primary school pupils took part. He still coaches 2 nights a week at Grangemouth Stadium and still runs for Falkirk Victoria Harriers. The winner is
William Day
Team Award – School
Because of the increased number of entries and the difficulty in judging between school and club winners, this year we have split them into two separate categories. The inaugural winners of the school team award were the Scottish Secondary School Gymnastics Champions in 2002. On the way to this success, they became the Forth Valley Champions for the 7th successive year. The team comprised Alexis Ure, Jennifer Lee, Rachel Smith and Sarah Mighton. The winners are
Graeme High School
Team Award – Club
The winners of the club award deserve their trophy equally. Setting a new Scottish record along the way, they won the 4x200m relay at the Scottish championships in a time of 1 minute 51.76 seconds. The team members were Leanne Thomson, Jenna Ballantine, Samantha Duncan and Kim Skinner. The winners are
Falkirk Victoria Harriers U15 Girls
Club Award
The winners of the club award have had another hugely successful season. Their ranks include three of tonight’s winners so far and possibly more, you never know. Their athletes have won numerous gold medals at all ages in Scottish championships from U13 to veteran. They had two of the four nominations for Scottish Athletics Senior Athlete of the year. The club received a commendation from Scottish Athletics at their annual awards ceremony. But just as important, they were the first in Scotland encourage people in the area to start to walk/jog or run. They increased participation in the 10k round the houses by 75%, turning into one of the largest in Scotland and they introduced a 2k fun run to the event, with over 200 finishers. Its not surprising that they had to increase the number of club coaches by almost 50%. The winners are
Falkirk Victoria Harriers.
Cadet (U14)
Once again, this category was extremely well represented and very difficult to judge. In third place was a young lady who was a Scottish and British champion last year, taking gold at 44kg in the sport of wrestling. She added further gold’s at district, invitation and international level. She is a member of the Scottish squad, the Scottish elite squad and was recently invited to train with the British School girl squad. In 3rd place
Jordan Stewart
In second place is a swimmer, one of the most successful the area has produced in many years. In the Scottish schools championships he took gold in the 50m fly and finished in the top six in four other events. In the Scottish Christmas meet in Inverness he took silver in the 200m fly, gold in the 200m back and bronze in the 200m individual medley. In 2nd place
David Smith
Many of our entries this year were from the sport of wrestling and it’s a tribute to the coaches at Denny Warrior Wrestling Club that they have produced such talent .The winner of the cadet award is a member of that club and the winner of all four major titles last year, winning the English, Scottish, British and Irish Open titles at 41kg or 47kg. He is a member of the Scottish Squad, the Scottish Elite Squad and the British Squad and is ranked No 1 in Britain. The winner of the cadet award is
Michael Airnes
Junior Award (U18)
If wrestling is a sport that has recently brought success to Falkirk, the judo is a sport that has done so for many years. In 3rd place in the junior award is someone who is only just old enough for this category, but who has to compete at U16 level due to previous success. It was at U16 that he took gold at the Scottish Junior Championships and has taken a clutch of other medals last year in that age group. He is one of only two boys to have been promoted to the top Scottish training group in the Scottish Performance Squad. In 3rd place
Kristopher Lindsay
In second place is another who has competed very successfully in judo for a number of years. She won the U18 British Schools title last year, a number of other gold’s at various events and highly creditable 5th places, at senior or U20 level, at the British Seniors Open and Belgium Open. She is a member of the Central Scotland Institute of Sport and a member of the Scottish Elite Squad and British Squad. At present she is the no. 1 senior in Scotland at 52kg and has trained with the Scottish Commonwealth squad. In 2nd place
Jayne Clason
The winner of the U18 award is a multi talented athlete that has seen success in a number of different events. She took the Scottish Indoor U15 title in the 60m hurdles, winning in a new Scottish record of 9.18 seconds. In the same championships she won the long jump gold with a distance of 5.07m. Later in the same month she competed in the Scottish Indoor U17 championships, this time taking gold in the pole vault, clearing 3m50. Given such a wide range of success, it might not be too surprising that she is also the Scottish Indoor Pentathlon champion, winning gold with a new championship record of 3111 points. The winner of the junior award is
Kim Skinner
Senior
In third place is another athlete, who won bronze in the Scottish Senior Indoor championship in the shot put with a throw of 14.46 m.
Nick Vince
Falkirk has produced a number of very successful target shooters over the years and last year was no exception. This young man, who missed out on eligibility for the junior award by a few months, was the Scottish Schools Team Captain at the Burley Schools meeting and won the Conway Fenton memorial cup at the Burley imperial meeting, only the second time this has ever been done by a Scot. He was the vice captain of the GB U18 team to Canada and a member of the U19 team to South Africa, the only person ever to have been selected twice for this team. In 2nd place
James Headon
Completing a pretty special night for Falkirk Athletics, the winner of this award is another pole-vaulter. 2002 was a pretty special year for him as he won the AAA U20 championships (outdoors and indoors), the Scottish U20 championships and the Scottish universities indoor championships. Ranked #1 in the UK at U20 and at Scottish senior level, he has represented Scotland at full senior level and Great Britain at Junior (U20) level. Last year he set a new Scottish U20 outdoor record, a new Scottish U20 indoor record (and then broke it twice) and a new Scottish Native Senior Indoor record and then beat that again too. The winner of the senior award is
Richard Hurren