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Local Sporting Champions Recognised At North East Sports Awards

Local sporting champions were recognised for their outstanding achievements in sport at the North East Sports Awards ceremony yesterday.

Hosted by Sport England North East, the Regional Development Agency One NorthEast and the City of Sunderland, the annual event saw Durham and England cricketer Paul Collingwood presented with the Sports Personality of the Year award for his contribution to cricket on a national and local level.

Gold Medal winner in the European Youth Table Tennis Championships and first player in the history of table tennis to win all five titles in the English Junior Championships, Paul Drinkhall was acknowledged with the Junior Award. The Disabled Sports Person award went to John Robertson who is renowned worldwide for his sailing despite being left paraplegic following a near fatal motorbike accident.

John’s crew make the ‘A’ team of the Great Britain Paralympic Sailing Squad and have just recently won gold for the second year running at the World Disability Sailing Championships in Australia. Other individuals awarded for their sporting achievements were golfer Kenneth Ferrie who went away with the Performance of the Year award and Peter Warburton who was presented with the Service to Sport award.

Organisations were also recognised for their contributions to sport. The Governing Body of Sport award was presented to the Amateur Rowing Association, whilst the Universities of the North East were decorated with the Support to Sport award.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .