Suffolk Sports Awards winner Stephen Williams given latest standing ovation by Saint Edmund Pacers team-mates
Saint Edmund Pacers honoured the outstanding achievements of members during 2019 at Ashlar House on Friday – but the biggest ovation of the night was reserved for recently crowned Suffolk Sports Award winner Stephen Williams.
The club’s chairman had drawn a similarly emotional reaction from more than 200 people at Milsoms, Kesgrave Hall two weeks previously when he was announced as the winner of the Elena Baltacha Award at the Active Suffolk run county-wide event.
It followed on from taking away the KiiWii Clothing and Promotions Triumph Over Adversity Award from the West Suffolk Sports Awards for all his efforts to be highly active with the Pacers, despite his ongoing long-running battle with cancer.
The club’s press secretary, Kim Swan said: “Having recently won the West Suffolk Sports Award and the Suffolk Active Sports Award Stephen was rightly recognised as club member of the year at the gala dinner and presented trophies to all the winners. It was a wonderful evening.”
Lewis Sullivan, who picked up the Iliffe Media People’s Youth Champion at the West Suffolk Sports Awards in October, was presented with the Junior Performance of The Year for a season which saw him win the English Schools and SIAB Schools International events.
Verity Valentine was announced as the Pacers’ Junior Athlete of The Year while Katie King was named Outstanding Female Competitor and Chris Mower Outstanding Male Competitor.
Other awards winners at Ashlar House were:
Most Improved Female Performance – Sharon Brandon; Most Improved Male performance – Chris Cooke; Best Female Performance – Odette Robson; Best Male Performance – Chris Cooke; Fastest Marathon Female – Laura Bourne; Fastest Marathon Male – Andrew Southwood; Most consistent Round Norfolk Relay performance – Mark Watts.
In addition, age group trophies in respect of the Pacers’ Grand Prix Series in 2019 (best six results from 10 events) were also presented as follows: Female: Female Senior – Jess Gooderham; F40 – Odette Robson; F50 – Sharon Brandon; F60 – Jenny Morgan;
Male: Male Senior – Joe Robson; M40 - Chris Mower; M50 – Nigel Schofield; M60 – Kim Swan.