Lewisham Athletes celebrated at GLL Sport Foundation awards evening
On Thursday 15th June, Glass Mill Leisure Centre hosted our annual celebration of Lewisham athletes who have received support from the GLL Sport Foundation.
This year we are proud to support 64 athletes across a range of sports and ages. With our youngest recipients being 10 years of age, and our oldest being 59 years of age. Sports supported range from American Football, Race Walking, Taekwondo, Athletics, Swimming to name just a few of the many talent sports men and women in the borough.
The GLL Sports Foundation is providing £39,700 through a mix of in kind and financial support to Lewisham Athletes. Of which 89% of our supported athletes receive no other central funding or support. 53% of supported athletes are aged under 21, 33% are under 16. 17 sports supported including: Olympic/ Paralympic/ Special Olympic & Commonwealth
The awards evening took place at Glass Mill Leisure Centre in the Mill Studio, which was set up with the GLL photo wall, banners and presentation table, as well as tables for refreshments. It proved a very busy and successful evening for with both athletes, families and staff all being able to network and celebrate local athlete’s success. The evening was attended by 21 of our supported and their families.
The event at Glass Mill was hosted by Tony Wallace (GLL Regional Director), with Tony being supported by Lorraine Patrinos (GLL People Director) to hand out certificates and 15th Anniversary GLL Sports Foundation water bottles
Hannah Hopper our Sports Aid athlete took part in a Q&A session with Matthew Houghton (Community Sports Manager), which provided an insight into a non mainstream sport of Race Walking in which she shared how she got into it, the progression she’s made in the last few seasons and how the support from GSF has helped her over the last couple of years. She then closed the Q&A with some words of wisdom and inspiration for the next generation of young athletes. Which although not an old athlete herself resonated with the audience and received really positive feedback from all.
Over the course of the evening either in the initial or closing networking periods, we received lots of positive feedback from the athletes or parents about how the GSF support has helped them with their training and progression in their chosen sport.
It was great to see and hear the pride in parents face and voices when discussing their child and their achievements.
The collective feedback from those who attend the event was positive and they’re all looking forward to next year.