Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, Active Sussex's flagship event, the Sussex Sports Awards, rewards quality, achievement, determination and commitment. Bringing together clubs, teams, businesses and the wider professional partnership, it is a fantastic culmination of the year's sporting successes, giving profile and recognition to finalists and award sponsors.
2012 will be a special year for sport in the UK and in Sussex. The Sports Awards will be a chance to reflect on the triumphs and celebrations of Sussex Olympians and Paralympians, as well as looking forward to a lasting sporting legacy from the London 2012 Games in the county.
The shortlist of nominees were announced recently and can be viewed in full on the Active Sussex website. The University of Brighton has long supported the awards, this year sponsoring the Disabled Sports Personality of the Year award. This category's shortlist includes; Paralympic Judo Bronze medallist Ben Quilter, UoB student and world champion paratriathlete Faye McClelland and GB wheelchair basketball player Simon Munn. As well as sponsoring an award, the University of Brighton have several connections to some of those nominated for 2012 Sussex Sports Awards:
Laurence Curtis a student based in Eastbourne has been nominated for not one but two awards – Young Coach and Young Volunteer. The current second year student has single-handedly brought Handball to the University and local area. By the end of his first year he entered a men’s team into the National Finals which resulted in three students being selected to represent the student Great Britain team. Laurence was also asked to help coach the representative team in Holland this spring.
Laurence has also started up a Junior and Adult Handball Club for the wider community capitalising on the new interest gained from the Olympics. Full details can be found in a previous news story.
In one year he established five weekly sessions for Handball where nothing had previously existed. Laurence has been the creator, administrator, coach, marketer and sole driving force for making this happen.
Dr. Nick Webborn, principal research fellow, has also been nominated for the Sussex Sports Awards in the Outstanding Contribution Award category. He was made Chief Medical officer at the Paralympics in London this summer and has been working with Olympic and Paralympic athletes for over 20 years. At the age of 24 he suffered at sever spinal injury whilst playing rugby but he continued professionally and is recognised as a leading sports doctor.
Faye McClelland (pictured right) is a physiotherapy student at the university and current treble-World and triple-European Para-triathlon athlete. She has also been nominated this year in the University of Brighton Disabled Sports Personality of the Year category. She is a major medal prospect for the 2016 Paralympic games in Rio where Para-triathlon becomes a newly established event. The Brighton student studies at the Eastbourne campus and has been awarded an Elite Sports Scholarship from the university to help her continue her training and learning.
Brain Brigden has been nominated for the Sussex County FA Volunteer of the Year award. Brain, has volunteered for over 20 years and is secretary for the Sussex Schools FA. He organises all of the school’s football set up in Sussex as well as referee allocations for the university. Brian recently retired from organising the University of Brighton referee appointments but in his time of service he made sure that all University of Brighton football fixtures had qualified referees, sometimes refereeing himself.
Finally Freda Bussey has been nominated for Outstanding Contribution to Sport. Freda was also shortlisted for Coach of the Year last year but her continuous work has given her another nomination. Last year she successfully bid for funding for a Beach Volleyball court on Worthing seafront as well as working as an Athletes Service Manager for Beach Volleyball and the Olympics and as a Games Maker at the Paralympics. As well as all this Freda finds the time to officiate all the University of Brighton volleyball fixtures.
Congratulations to all the nominees. The awards will take place at the Hilton Brighton Metropole on 23 November 2012.