Every year the Suffolk sports awards celebrate the best in sporting talent across the county. This year’s event, at Trinity Park on November 13, features Olympic and international stars among the nominees. Here we take a look at some of the contenders for the awards
Unsung hero
Allan Loveday
Football and tennis
Allan oversees Thurlow Youth Football and Thurlow Tennis Club, as well as maintaining the sports field. He has led the project to replace the children’s play area on the Thurlow Recreation Ground this year and overseen the organisation of the Thurlow Fayre and Bonfire Night events for many years.
Jane Samkin
Running
Jane is nominated for her tireless effort to make the Great Run Local in Southwold a fantastic success. She set it up and in the first year 179 people have taken part at least once, with an average of 32 runners a week – many of whom were not active before signing up.
Ann Williamson
Cycling
Ann attended the first-ever Women on Wheels steering group in Bury and has since gone on to lead the event locally, planning five and 20-mile rides.
She has also established a social cycling group in Bury, the Bury Bicycle Collective.
Andrew Proven
Disability sport
Andrew is an active member of many community groups and well known for promoting disability sport in the Waveney area.
An England Boccia international, he is also co-chair of the Waveney Disability Forum and a member of Waveney Sportsability, which work toward making sports available to all abilities.
Young Personality
Amelia Hadjianastasi
Volleyball
Amelia is an outstanding volleyball player who has been selected for the England Juniors whilst still eligible for the younger Cadets squad. She recently made her England debut in the Sainsbury’s School Games which were held in Manchester and was a key member of the Suffolk Three squad which competed in the Eastern Region Tournament Series and Essex Ladies League.
Clare Hole
Dressage
Clare, 13, was the youngest member of the Great Britain team at the Pony European Dressage Championship by an incredible three years.
The pony team went on to win the gold medal for Great Britain for the first time in the Championships history. Clare was second best of the British riders so her score really did help the team to win, she was 11th out of 57 riders in the team competition. This won her a place into the Individual Championship where she was 14th, this in turn won her a place into the Freestyle where she was 14th.
Callum Wilkinson
Race-walking
In just three years Callum has gone from absolute novice to Britain’s top junior (U20 ) and national record holder in the technically-demanding athletics discipline of race walking at a range of distances from one mile up to 10K.
He has represented England and GB at competitions in Switzerland, Czech Republic, Spain and Sweden. His PB’s are on the top 10 UK all time lists for most distances.
Rebecca Sherwin
Swimming
Becky is a truly amazing and inspiring swimmer.
This year she has competed for Team GB in the European Games in Baku winning a bronze in the relay team as well as winning a gold, two silvers and a bronze at the British Nationals.
Caleb Fuller
Basketball
Caleb represented England in the U16 age group at the Fiba Division A European Championships in Lithuania this summer, playing against some of the best basketball players of his age in the world.
He also made his senior national league debut for Ipswich during the 2014/15 season at the tender age of just 15 years old – becoming the youngest ever player to play for the Ipswich Men.
Less than 18 months ago he broke his knee cap and shin-bone at the same time, yet was picked for England’s U18 team in September.
Lucy Turmel
Squash
Lucy was the gold medal winner at the European Championships with the England U17 mixed team, before being picked for the U19 team at just 15-years-old.
She also finished fifth at the British Under 23 event before winning the final of the English Championships in Birmingham, a reward for all her hard work and commitment.
Katie Nesbitt
Swimming
Katie is a para swimmer and is on the world class podium potential programme with British Swimming, on average spending 20 hours training each week.
She went to the 2014 Junior Europeans swimming championhips, winning four golds and a bronze medal and took part in the ASA National Swimming Championships winning three golds.
Team performance
St Felix School
Swimming
The team, consisting of one year five pupil and three year six students, enjoyed huge success at the English Schools Swimming Association Primary Schools Championships.
The team – Chester Leeming, Samuel Stephens, Joshua Stephens and Joab Carr – won the mixed stroke relay gold before also claiming gold in the freestyle stroke relay.
Lowestoft Town Ladies
Football
The Ladies won every league game throughout the 2014/15 season and secured the Eastern Woman’s Premier Division title and promotion, finishing 25 points clear of second place.
The front three of Natasha Thomas, Zoe Cossey and Hannah Waters scored 114 league and cup goals between them, with the team also winning the League Cup.
Bury St Emunds Rugby 1st XV
Rugby Union
In only their second season in Rugby’s National Division 3 Bury were crowned League Champions and thus promoted to National Division 2 – the fourth tier of rugby in England.
This is the first time that any club from Suffolk has achieved this status – Bury are now among the top 72 clubs in the whole country.
School of Sporting Excellence
Morland CoE VA Primary
A small school in the heart of Gainsborough, a very deprived area of Ipswich, the boys’ football team won the county title and represented Suffolk in the regional finals in London. The school offers a vast amount of sporting opportunities from reception to Year 6, running at least two sports clubs a day, one lunchtime club and one after school club, alongside free sailing lessons.
Birchwood Primary
PE is an integral ‘cog/driver’ in the school’s curriculum and an inherent part of the school ethos to encourage children to make healthy lifestyle choices – for example the school’s food policy, where children got to vote on snacks they would like at playtimes and a ‘get active’ poster campaign, a school council initiative to encourage every child in school to seek out more opportunities to be physically active.
East Bergholt High
The school has a passionate commitment to sport, from encouraging beginners to try a new activity to supporting high-level athletes.
Fourteen school squads reached county finals while of the eight school football squads, seven of them reached the semi-finals of the County Cup, five of those reached the final and three were crowned county champions. In total the school won 44 of 53 County and National Cup matches last season.
See next week’s EADT and Ipswich Star for a look at the contenders in the other five awards categories.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here