IT was glittering, it was glamorous, it was emotional and it was uplifting – it was the Scottish Women in Sport annual awards dinner and it is one of the highlights in the sporting calendar that shouldn’t be missed.
We were delighted to be in a position to present nine awards over the course of the night in Glasgow on Friday and to hear some of the amazing stories from our wonderful winners.
There was great representation from athletes, national governing bodies and corporate partners who were our category sponsors. The University of the West of Scotland was our main partner for the event and sponsored the UWS Sportswoman of the Year award. Target shooter Seonaid McIntosh was the winner, chosen by a public vote.
Seonaid, who won gold in the 50m rifle prone at the World Championships in South Korea, is a relative newcomer to the sport, her achievements this year along have been quite magnificent.
The evening’s special guest was 200m runner Beth Dobbin, who spoke with passion about the highs and lows of her journey in athletics. Having broken a long-standing record this year, Beth’s determination to achieve has never been in doubt and her work ethic, holding down various different jobs to enable her to participate in athletics, puts us all to shame.
Sportscotland Young Sportswoman of the year was squash player Georgia Adderley, pictured. Category winners were: MG Alba Youth Ambassador Award – Kirsten Barrett, martial arts; Frame Role Model Award, Rosy Ryan, cricket; KubeNet Community Sport Champion – Anna Beattie, All Stars Juniors Netball; SW/S Inspiration in Sport – Rebecca Sellar; Brand-Oath Official of the Year, Anne Malcolm, curling; Dentons Coach of the Year, Shelley Kerr, football; Solheim Cup team of the year – Scottish FA women’s national team.
It’s an amazing feeling when an event comes together and it’s also pretty amazing to be able to chill out the next day. That, of course, will be a shortlived feeling for our elite Scottish women athletes, who have very little space in their busy lives to relax.
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