Branch Conference and 15 Awards Received at Annual General Meeting
The Stirling Court Hotel welcomed a celebration of sport as it hosted Scottish Disability Sport’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Awards ceremony on Sunday 24th September 2023.
Ahead of the AGM, the 2023 Branch Conference took place. Through three interactive workshops, the focus of the day was on supporting clubs to become more inclusive, improving the planning and organisation of regional events and data collection.
The AGM itself then kicked off with congratulating the appointment of three new board members: John Kane, Sarah Pryde-Smith and Peter McGuire. On the theme of welcoming new faces, three members of the newly appointed Young Person’s Sport Panel shared their enthusiasm and received guidance from some of the previous Panel members, at a handover presentation. The new Young Person’s Sport Panel members were announced on Friday (22nd) and more information about the 14 members can be found here.
The Awards ceremony rounded off the day, with Faye Rodgers receiving the first award of the night in recognition of her hugely successful season (a gold and bronze medal at the World Para Swimming Championships).
“I’m really excited. It’s been a really big year, my first year competing as a Para athlete so to get recognised for what I’ve achieved this year is just amazing. I’m just really, really grateful,” said Rodgers after picking up the Russell Hogg Bursary.
Finlay Davidson was the second recipient of the Russel Hogg Bursary, awarded after his Para Powerlifting World Championships fourth place finish in the men’s junior <49kg category.
In what she described as “a total surprise”, Ling Mann was the winner of the Community Champion Trophy in recognition of her commitment and support of disability sport in her local community, particularly her work within Boccia.
“I really enjoy volunteering and doing the clubs. I get a lot out of it with the athletes. It’s so fantastic, thank you very much,” said Ling Mann.
The Special Recognition Award was awarded to Caroline Johnston for her outstanding commitment to developing disability sport in the West of Scotland over the past decade and her involvement as a coach at Red Star Athletics.
In a pre-recorded acceptance speech, Caroline said that she was, “quite flabbergasted” to be the recipient of such an award, commenting: “I’ve had years of great fun running up and down the country doing various things for disability sport”.
After winning gold at this year’s World Youth Boccia Championships in BC4 pairs, Tyler McLelland won the John de Courcy Trophy for Most Promising Newcomer.
“Never give up. There’s going to be hard times. I’ve had hard times so far in my career where it has not gone perfectly but you just fight through those hard times and then there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel”, advised Tyler to any newcomer wanting to take up a sport.
Former international medallist, Peter McGuire, was the winner of the Russell Hogg Trophy for Development Coach of the Year. When asked what his highlight of 2023 was, he said, “Just supporting those on their journey, really and to actually see them grow.”
The winner of the Athlete’s Athlete of the Year was Gavin Drysdale. Earlier this summer, Drysdale won Great Britain a gold medal at the Para Athletics World Championships in Paris with a new European Record (16.66 seconds).
Drysdale’s advice to aspiring athletes was, “Just have a go. You never know where it might take you and the most important part is to have fun along the way.”
Other award recipients were Craig Peattie (Dedication to Para-Football Award), David Laing (Glasgow Trophy for Service to Sport), Jim Hunter (Elspeth Watson Trophy), Greig Taylor (Fife Trophy for Performance Coach of the Year), Perth Eagles (Janice Eaglesham Trophy for Club of the Year), Samantha Kinghorn MBE (Finlay Calder Trophy for Athlete of the Year), Stephen Clegg (Brian Memorial Trophy for Swimmer of the year) and Neil Fachie OBE (Angus Trophy for Sportsperson of the Year).
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