Race on to find sporting heroes

4:27pm Monday 10th September 2007

Comments (0)   Have your say »

The race is on to find the county's sporting heroes for this year's Oxfordshire Sports Awards.

The awards are run by the Oxfordshire Sports Partnership, which is appealing for people to nominate talented sportsmen and women, teams and clubs as well as dedicated coaches and volunteers.

Nominations opened on Friday and will remain open until Friday, October 5. Shortlisted nominees will be invited to celebrate their achievements at an awards evening on November 9 at Oxford United's stadium.

Oxford triple jumper Nathan Douglas last year won the title of sports achiever of the year after a season of success which saw him take silver at the European Championships.

Injury forced him to pull out of the 2007 World Championships but he remains involved with the launch of the awards.

He said: "This is an ideal opportunity for the achievements of the county's sportsmen and women to be celebrated, and for the people who don't normally appear in the limelight to be recognised publicly."

Other winners from last year include Claire Lasko, who was voted young sports achiever of the year, and Danielle Watts, who won disabled sports performer of the year.

Roger Cowdrey, chairman of the Oxfordshire Sports Partnership, said: "The awards aim to showcase Oxfordshire sport as we really do have a lot of talent and dedication out there.

"We need to recognise and celebrate this in the lead up to to London 2012."

He added: "If you know someone - an individual, team or a club worthy of an award - you can nominate in a number of categories."

Among the categories are sportsman and sportswoman of the year, club of the year, coach of the year, disabled sportsperson of the year, extreme sportsperson of the year and junior team of the year.

For more information and details of how to nominate, go to www.oxfordshiresport.org or email ahill@oxford.gov.uk.

The Oxfordshire Sports Partnership is also looking for local businesses to sponsor the award categories.

For further details, call Michelle Corbett on 01865 467251 or Amie Hill on 01865 467236.