Page last updated at 16:25 GMT, Monday, February 11 2013

Eastleigh Sports Awards

Celebrating 2012

The 2012 Sports Awards will be held on Wednesday 6th February 2013 at The Ageas Bowl. After such an amazing year of sport the event promises to be fantastic.

There are 15 award categories ourtlined below.

Senior Volunteer - someone who has made a significant impact at their club and in the local community through their on-going commitment and enthusiasm for sport.

Junior Volunteer - someone who has made a significant impact at their club for someone of their age and promises to be a real asset to the club in the future.

Junior Sportswoman - someone who has made major personal achievement at county, regional and potentially national level within their sport in 2012.

Junior Sportsman - someone who has made major personal achievement at county, regional and potentially national level within their sport in 2012.

Senior Sportsperson - someone who has made major personal achievement at county, regional and potentially national level within their sport in 2012.

Senior Disability Sportsperson – someone who has made major personal achievement at county, regional and potentially national level within their sport in 2012.

Junior Disability Sportsperson - someone who has made major personal achievement at county, regional and potentially national level within their sport in 2012.

Official of the Year – recognising the high level of commitment to their sport within 2012, demonstrating excellent dedication and high quality service.

Participation Coach - recognising the outstanding contribution of a coach to getting more people starting, staying and/or succeeding in sport through high-quality coaching.

Performance Coach - recognising the achievements of a coach in developing emerging talent and athletes at the highest level of performance in sport.

Club of the Year - recognising exceptional commitment to developing a club and the activities and services it offers to its local community.

Senior Team of the Year – a team who have achieved success and performed at a consistently high level throughout 2012.

Junior Team of the Year - a team who have achieved success and performed at a consistently high level throughout 2012.

Service to Health – an individual who has significantly contributed to the health of their local community whilst inspiring others.

Service to Sport - an individual who has significantly contributed to sport in their local community whilst inspiring others.

To request a hard copy of a nomination form please email rachael.dyer@eastleigh.gov.uk or call 02380 683347

Eastleigh Sports Awards- celebrating 2011

Following the success of Eastleigh's first Sports Awards the local Sport and Physical Activity Alliance (SPAA) hosted the 2nd annual event on Thursday 9th February 2012. The event celebrated the success of our many talented and dedicated players, coaches, teams, officials and clubs in the Borough of Eastleigh during 2011.

Organised by Eastleigh Sport and Physical Activity Alliance, the event proved a huge success with over 170 people attending at the prestigious Rose Bowl venue. The ceremony provided the opportunity to celebrate individual excellence, team achievement as well as recognising those people who work tirelessly ‘behind the scenes’ to support the great sports stars and offer opportunities to take part in an active lifestyle across the Borough of Eastleigh.

Lou Gittens, Chair of Eastleigh SPAA opened the event and Franny Benali, ex Saints legend, did an absolutely fantastic job of compering the evening. The close the awards ceremony the audience were privilidged to hear a very inspirational speech from Alex Danson, Team GB hockey play and recent world silver medalist.

Participation Coach of the Year

This award was won by Sunil Bali who is a badminton coach at Hamble. Sunil always gets the best out of his players and is calm and supportive of all players. He gives a lot of voluntary hours to the school and the badminton club and is a true local hero. Mike Glanville and Matt Beckingham were also shortlisted for this award for their fantastic work in teaching multi sports and football.

Thank you to Eastleigh College for kindly sponsoring this award.

Performance Coach

Three fantastic coaches were shortlisted for this award Chris Shepperd for his excellent badminton coaching achievements, Adam Patterson for his gymnastics coaching and Peter Carter for his commitment and coaching at Swan Netball Club. The winner of this award was Adam Patterson, Adam is a level 5 coach at Dynamo School of Gymnastics, he was one of the youngest ever to achieve the highest level of qualification possible. He coaches from grass routes to International level. 

Thank you to Planet Sport for kindly sponsoring this award.

Official of the Year

The winner of the official of the year award went to Ricky Goddard who qualified as an official for wheelchair rugby and is volunteering in the London 2012 Paralympic Games. He was one of the youngest ever to officiate in an International tournament last year and is a very caring young man to all around him. Becky was a very close runner up for her support and work organising and refereeing a football project at Fleming Park on a friday night working with local police.

Thank you to Eastleigh SPAA for sponsoring this award.

Senior Sportsperson of the Year

Two ladies at very different points in their careers were shortlisted for this award. The winner was Freya Jones who started Javelin at 11 and in recent times this has taken her to qatar, Russia, the first Junior Olympics in Singapore and U20 Europeans where she was the youngest to reach the final. Hannah was a runner up but her journey has been incredibly fast a steep... she want from starting a running club in 2008 to representing the Isle of Man in the International Island Games where she finished 6th!

Thank you to Sport Hampshire & IOW for sponsoring this award.

Senior Disability Sportsperson of the Year

The winner of this category was Aiden Poore, he is always enthusiastic and motivate. He has made particular progress this year, extending his personal goals, joining in more sessions and taking the lead in some aspects of coaching.

Kevin Small was a worthy runner up in this category and shows great enthusiasm for all sports and his running has improved dramatically. 

Thank you to Exxon Mobil for sponsoring this award.

Junior Disability Sportsperson of the Year

This category was incredibly close between 2 brothers Adam and David Knott. Adam, the older of the two, won the award and in his speech thanked his family and said he is hoping to represent the Great Britain goalball team in the London 2012 Paralympics.

Adam and David are both flying out to Europe this weekend for another International Goalball match.

Thank you to Exxon Mobil for sponsoring this award.

Junior Team of the Year

The Thornden School Ski Team were the winners of this award. In recent times the team have gone from strength to strength with improving results at all levels including podium finishes at the National Championships. In addition the team have made selection for the National Schools Squads. Congratulations also the the runners up of this category Toynbee U14 Girls football squad and Toynbee U14 Basketball squads for both their unbeaten records.

Thank you to Ex Saints for sponsoring this award.

Senior Team of the Year

Two excellent teams were successfully shortlisted for this award. Eastleigh Running Club ladies team won the title of team of the year for their record success in 2011 and Fleming Park Bowls club came a very close second place for their county and regional success in 2011.

Thank you to Ex Saints for sponsoring this award.

Junior Sportsman of the Year

Both junior sportsman and sportswoman categories were of an incredibly high standard, only a third of all applications were even shortlisted! Five local boys were shortlisted for this award but the winner is Kai Widdrington who was crowned U16 World Ballroom Dancing Champion in 2011, incredibly he also won the U19 Title despite being 2 years young. Eddie Jenkinson, Kyle Finch, Cameron Webber and Andrew Douglas were also successfully shortlisted in this category. Eddie has topped the rankings Nationally in the U13 discuss and came 2nd in javelin, Kyle won 2 major European Championships during 2011, Cameron loves sailing and finished third in the silver fleet of a world championships and Andrew started polevaulting, smashed the county and national U13 record in 2011.

Eastleigh are so proud to have so much amazing talent in the Borough and wish all the boys every success in 2012 in their chosen sports.

Thank you to The Rose Bowl for sponsoring this award.

Junior Sportswoman of the Year

Again this was an incredibly category but there could only be one winner and this was Emily Hewitt, Emily has has an amazing year and won the National Junior Womens canoe Championships, she is hardworking and aiming for a place at the top of the seniors! Annie Boby, Sophie Pike, Katie Hayward and Emma Hebbes were very close runners up. Annie is British Judo Champion in Judo in the U12 category. Sophie qualified for an won a silver medal at the national tumbling championships. Katie was successful and gained a position in Team South Netball and was chosen to trial for England U17 netball team at the age of only 14. Finally, Emma who took up volleyball only 2 years ago, has recently been selected to represent England as part of her cadet squad in Austria.

Again congratulations to all those shortliste in this category, the calibre was so high and we'll be following all our junior sports stars very closely in 2012.

Thank you to The Rose Bowl for sponsoring this award.

Junior Volunteer of the Year

Three individuals were shortlisted for this award. Harry Cox won the title for his hard work in the basketball world, not only coaching and playing but also supporting numerous presentations about 'I'm Basketball' across the region. Georgia Field and Beulah Moody were close runners up. Georgia is a great role model and is passionate about all areas of sport. Beulah chooses to give back so many voluntary hours including O50's and disability events.

Thank you to Eastleigh SPAA for sponsoring this award.

Senior Volunteer of the Year

This was an incredibly competitive category with three very deserving runners up!

The winner was Debbie Parnell who has supported over 300 disabled cyclists to rise at Cycles for all since January 2011. She has an infectious passion to facilitate cycling for people of all abilities, giving volunteers and disabled riders the confidence to participate in cycling.

James Saunders and Peter Childs were very close runners up in this category and were personally thanked by the SPAA at the awards for all their amazing work across the Borough. James organises Eastleigh Parkrun which attracts around 200 runners each week of all ages, sizes and abilities. Peter is an inspirational gymnastics coach  who will always be found at every club event doing his bit.

Thank you to Age Concern Eastleigh for sponsoring this award.

Club of the Year

This was awarded to Eastleigh Running Club who has more than doubled their membership over the last year and this surge has pushed their results up whether it be return to running groups, club or national runners. The runners up were Dynamo and Swan. Dynamo School of Gymnastics work in all aspects of the community, they teach to Hamble school pupils, local primary schools, pre school, afterschool, and then up to county, national and international standard.  

Thank you to Eastleigh Borough Council for sponsoring this award.

Service to Sport

John William Foster has been involved with Hamble FC incredibly for more than 40 years, he joined at 22 years old and has had may roles.. John has always enjoyed sport, although football is his first love! He is very committed to encouraging and helping all team members including players, management, coaches or officials to enjoy football and is always there to support them.

Because of people like John children and adults alike are enthused to take part in sport. These are the true unsung heros who give their voluntary time everyday to ensure others get the very best experiences.

Thank you to Fleming Park Leisure Centre for sponsoring this award.

Service to Health

Ann Hardy is an incredibly worthy winner of this award. Ann has contributed significantly to the health of so many people living in the Borough of Eastleigh, she continually inspired and encourages others during heir involvement in delivering so many health projects to so many people.

Ann runs classes for those over 50 years old for nearly 200 people every week, she voluntarily runs a special needs gym sessions for disabled children, she has raised thousands of pounds for charity and is an inspiration to everyone around her.

Thank you to Underhill Trophies for sponsoring this award.

The evening was a great success and we hope everyone involved had a great time. If you think anyone is missing from this list then keep a record of their successes and please nominate them this year!

Last Years' Results