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HALL OF FAME
Here are celebrate the previous winners of the Recognition Awards, throughout 2023.
MAY 2023 WINNERS
Underdog of the Month
LYLA BELSHAW
Colchester Harriers' Lyla Belshaw won the TCS Mini London Marathon.
The talented 15-year-old crossed the line first to become under-15 girls' champion, at the event.
Lyla sped around the 2.6km course in a fine time of 8m 26s, to claim one of her greatest-ever wins.
Representing the East of England, she led from start to finish and kicked on at the end to take the tape by a clear margin, on The Mall.
Trailblazer of the Month
Clarisse Agbégnénou cemented herself as one of the host nation’s biggest gold-medal hopes for the 2024 Paris Games by winning her sixth world judo title, returning to the top of the sport 11 months after having daughter Athena.
Agbégnénou, 30, beat Slovenian Andreja Leški in Wednesday’s 63kg final in Doha.
“I can say that I am stronger than before,” she said before worlds. “The pregnancy, giving birth, all of this makes you strong. I’m focusing on how she can say, ‘Oh she’s my mom, and she is strong, and I want to be like her.'”
Squad of the Month
NORWICH WOMEN'S FOOTBALL CLUB
Despite a clear lack of support from the Norwich FC Sporting Director given his recent careless comments, Norwich Women FC went on to win the Harrod Sport Women’s Cup this month for the 7th time in the Club’s history.
APRIL 2023 WINNERS
Underdog of the Month
AMELIE BLOCKSIDGE
Amelie Blocksidge celebrated her 14th birthday on Sunday with a national title in the 1500-meter freestyle at the British Championships, lowering her lifetime best by 11 seconds with a winning mark of 16:19.67.
Blocksidge wasted no time establishing a new age group record, becoming the fastest 14-year-old British girl ever by over 20 seconds. The previous standard of 16:41.34 had stood for 14 years, set by Danielle Hall-Jackson in 2009.
She’s about four seconds faster than Katie Ledecky (16:24.46 from 2011) when the same age. Amelie is one of Great Britain's brightest distance prospects, from City of Salford SC.
Trailblazer of the Month
MARIAM STEPANYAN
Armenia's Mariam Stepanyan, head coach of the national women's Under-17 team and assistant coach to the senior national team and former player. She is determined to use her position to show girls and women that there is a possibility for them to make a living from sport.
"In Armenia, girls don't often think about education and I want to change this in my country," she said. "We don't have a lot of girls or women working as a coach. I want to show others that they can have a future in this profession – football can provide an education and a career, and I want people to know that to be a coach is an important job, and even harder than being a player.
Squad of the Month
ANTRIM WOMEN
Irish Ladies National Football Team, Antrim secure promotion to Division Three for the first time.
Antrim cruised to their first Division Four title. Antrim will play Division Three football next season for the first time in their history following a 10-point victory against Leitrim in the Division Four final at Parnell Park.