News
Spotlight on our Athletes - 2024 Award Winners
04/10/2024 00:00, In Blog /
Last weekend, six athletes were recognised for their fantastic performances and dedication to their sport at our Annual Awards Evening.
Junior Male Athlete of the Year
A rising star in the field events, Owen Garrett from Yale AC was awarded the Junior Male Athlete of the Year Award.
Owen represented GB at the European U18 Championships and was crowned U17 Welsh shot put and discus champion this year and boasts personal bests of 15.85m in the shot and 56.38m in the discus. He topped the UK rankings for his age in discus and was fourth in the shot put.
Junior Female Athlete of the Year
The Junior Female Athlete of the Year had an equally impressive summer and this award went to Eden Robinson.
Eden represented GB at the World U20 Championships in Lima this August, where she finished fifth. This multi-talented Cardiff Archer climbed into third place on the Welsh all-time heptathlon rankings with a score of 5597 and finished second on the UK overall rankings to fellow Welsh athlete Abigail Pawlett.
Eden Robinson and Owen Garrett celebrating their Young Athlete of the Year Awards
Senior Male Athlete of the Year
The Senior Male Athlete of the Year was awarded to the talented Aled Sion Davies.
Aled has long been the standard bearer for Welsh athletes at the Paralympics and Paris was his fourth success games. He added silver in the shot put to his three golds previously won in the shot and discus.
Earlier on in the year, he also won gold in the F63 shot put in Kobe, Japan at the Para Athletics World Championships. He now has his eyes firmly set on taking yet another medal at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Aled was unable to be at the Awards Evening so his coach Ryan Spencer-Jones picked up his award on his behalf.
Aled Sion Davies at the Paralympics in Paris this year.
Senior Female Athlete of the Year
Coach, Ryan Spencer-Jones also played a key part in guiding the Senior Female Athlete of the Year, Sabrina Fortune to golden glory in the French capital this summer.
2024 was a pretty special year for the Deeside AAC athlete as she struck gold at the Para Athletics World Championships and the Paralympics – winning in Paris with a World Record throw of 15.12m in the shot put!
Sabrina Fortune celebrating her award and gold medal.
Performance of the Year
This award went to the man who made Welsh history.
Usain Bolt continues to hold the title of the world’s fastest man, his 9.58 sec time over 100 metres at the 2009 World Championship being the mark everyone aspires to challenge.
Wales’ fastest ever man has been held by some great athletes over the years and this year Jeremiah Azu took the title!
The 23-year-old ran 9.97 seconds over 100m in May in Germany and is now joint ninth on the UK all-time ranking list. He was the UK Champion in 2022 and is a double European U23 Champion.
Jeremiah also went on to represent team GB in Paris this year and ran the third leg in the 4 x 100 relay team that won the bronze medal.
Jeremiah Azu celebrating his bronze medal at the Paris Olympic Games.
Athlete’s Athlete of the Year
This is a momentous award for an athlete to win in any sport.
This year’s winner, Clara Evans was called up to represent Team GB in the Olympic Marathon just eight days before the start of the race. Clara produced a brilliant run and was the first British athlete home in the Paris Marathon.
The Pontypridd Roadents athlete finished 46th out of 92 starters in 26 degrees temperatures in central Paris having tackled one of the toughest courses seen in a championship marathon.
Less than a year ago she took the Welsh marathon record down to 2:25.01 in Valencia and her time in Paris of 2:33.01 made her the fourth fastest brit of 2024.
Clara Evans accepting the Athlete’s Athlete of the Year from Chris Type.
A huge congratulations to all six athletes for winning your well-deserved awards!