Young Ballykelly Sporting Star Receives Top Award

Nov. 2, 2011 - PRLog -- In the awards scheme, run in partnership with the charity SportsAid, sprinter Sally beat stiff competition to scoop the prize for the Disability Category for Northern Ireland.

16 year old Sally, who was born without her left hand and part of her arm, is one of the youngest members of the GB Paralympic athletics squad for 2012. She became involved with her sport at school and, after joining the local running club, quickly progressed to the top of her game.  She currently holds the No.1 UK ranking for both 100m and 200m in her classification, as well as a senior IPC World Ranking in her classification (T46) of No.4 in 200m and No.7 in 100m. In non-disabled athletics this year she has a ranking of No.2 in Northern Ireland and Ulster for U17 300m and was selected to compete for the Ulster relay team at the All-Ireland finals, proving her ability to compete in both non-disable and disabled athletics at the highest level.  

Sally holds an array of medals, including gold from the IWAS World Junior Championships. She took first place in the 200m race which she completed in a personal best of 26.43 seconds, beating her number one rival Nikol Rodomakina from Russia. Sally now eagerly awaits selection for the 2012 games.

Sally was delighted to be recognised with an OCS Young Sports Person Award and commented, “I feel very proud of myself for my achievements and to be recognised by OCS is great.”

She will join the winners from ten UK regions, three other national disability category winners and the Young Star category winner at a celebratory event on 24th November in the OCS Stand at the Kia Oval.  On the day, OCS will announce one overall winner who will receive a further £8,500 worth of support over three years.  Previous OCS Young Sports Person Award winners will attend the event alongside a host of top sporting stars such as Kate Howey MBE, Wayne Otto OBE, Beth Tweddle MBE and Rory Underwood MBE.

Chris Cracknell, chief executive of OCS said, “The OCS Young Sports Person Awards, now in its 14th year, highlights our commitment to supporting young people who are great role models, not only for their peers, but for many others in business and the community.  Their drive and relentless determination to achieve their goals is inspirational.  Our grass-roots scheme helps young athletes right at the start of their career when support and funding is needed most.  Well done to the athletes who have been rewarded this year and we hope that they will have the same success as many of our past winners, some of whom look set to represent GB in London 2012.”