Date posted 30 May 2019
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108 talented local athletes from Lambeth have received awards worth £59,700, with £11,100 in cash awards and £48,600 in kind from the GLL Sports Foundation.

The second annual Lambeth GSF Sports Foundation Awards were held on Thursday 23rd May and hosted at Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre. In attendance, were 18 athletes who were awarded a Top Up, Achievement, or SportsAid award. Representatives from Lambeth included Councillor Sonia Winifred, Cabinet Member for Equalities & Culture, and Mark Fisher, Head of Parks and Leisure, as well as Marcia Dillon and Rodney Craig from Lambeth Sports Development team. The programme consisted of ice dance displays by the ice sponsored national GSF champions, opening speech by Cllr Winifred, an overview on GSF and partnerships by Sue Robinson, Community Sports Manager GLL,  and local updates and testimonials by Tom Edwards , Community Sports Officer GLL.

The GLL Sport Foundation was founded in 2008 by charitable social enterprise GLL, to provide talented athletes with financial support as well as access to training and sport science facilities. The awards were launched after GLL identified an increasing number of talented athletes who were receiving no sport funding and had given up on their sporting dreams through lack of support. Today, it works closely with key partners SportsAid, SportsAid Wales, and the Mary Peters Foundation.

Previous award recipients have included Olympic gold medallist and World Champion boxer Anthony Joshua OBE, Team GB track athlete Perri Shakes-Drayton, and Paralympic champion swimmer Ellie Simmonds.  Funded athletes won 20 medals at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Flora Perkins, Lambeth GSF SportsAid supported cyclist, commented “The GLL sports foundation helps me to travel and compete around the country where I gain experience through racing. It also enables me to get equipment that helps me to perform the best that I can. It was great to go to the GLL awards evening this year and chat to other performance athletes form different sports and better understand their training and events.”

GLL Sport Foundation patron, former Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell OBE comments: “I am delighted that in 2019 the GLL Sport Foundation is supporting over 3,000 athletes to achieve their potential. With more than 96% of supported athletes not receiving any other additional funding, it is clear that we are reaching those that need support most. I’m sure we will see many successes for young Foundation-supported athletes in 2019.”

Councillor Sonia Winifred, Lambeth Council Cabinet Member for Equalities and Culture, attended the awards reception and presented all of the athletes with their awards, she added “The Lambeth GLL Sports Foundation Awards in partnership with Lambeth Council Gifted and Talented scheme was a great celebration to show case the successes of our young athletes in the borough. It was an honour to open the evening and to watch our supported young ice skaters performing on the ice rink.”

This year, a total of 3,120 UK athletes will receive support worth a total of £1.8 million. The recipients are spread across 117 sporting disciplines. This brings the total athlete funding value to £11 million since the scheme first launched.