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May 16

Blackpool Young Sportsmen/women awards open!

Nominations are now open to find a young person in your area worthy of prestigious sporting recognition.

The Quayle Sports Awards, named after former councillor and alderman for the Borough, John Robert Quayle, have been running in the town since 1945.

The prominent awards honour young sportsmen and women, who have excelled in sport, shown excellent leadership skills, demonstrated great sporting achievements or provided great coaching skills.

The Quayle awards are open to all children and young people living within Blackpool, with the award split into two categories.

The Quayle Trophy is open to young people aged 14 – 21 years and the Quayle Shield is open to children and young people aged 9 – 13 years.

Cllr Graham Cain, Cabinet Member for Tourism and Leisure said: “The sports awards are a great way of us celebrating the people who put so much time and effort into sport around Blackpool.

“We have some really good sports people both playing in and coaching teams all over Blackpool, making use of the various sporting facilities across town.

“I hope people will send through their nominations for people that they feel have made an outstanding sporting contribution, so that they can be recognised at the awards ceremony in June.”

The closing date for applications is Friday 30 May and the awards will be presented by Mayor, Cllr Val Haynes, at the Town Hall in June.

Cllr Haynes will also lead the selection committee for the awards, and added: “It makes me really proud to see young people in Blackpool getting involved sport.

“We’ve got a great amount of talent coming through our schools and young people. At the last Olympic and Paralympic Games there were a number of people competing from right here on the Fylde coast and as long as we continue to help our local sports stars then I see no reason why this can’t continue to grow in the years to come.

“I can’t wait to read through all of the applications and their achievements and look forward to meeting the winners later on in the year.”

For an application form please email [email protected] or telephone 478433.

Previous winners of the award include:

Brian Rose – The current light middleweight international and British boxing champion;

Steven Croft – Part of the 2011 County championship winning Lancashire Cricket Club team;

Shelly Woods – Paralympics wheelchair medal winner, winning silver in the 1500m and bronze in the 5000m at the Beijing Paralympic Games, 2008, as well as a silver medal in the London Paralympic Games 2012. Shelly has also won the wheelchair race at the London Marathon.

Steven Mason – Member of the Great British Modern Pentathlon Team

David Heaton – Paralympic fencing medal winner, won a bronze medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and competed again in London 2012.

Justine Moore – London 2012 Paralympian fencer, who won in 2012 after competing in the games aged just 20.