THE Helensburgh and Lomond winners in this year’s LiveArgyll Sport Awards received their certificates and trophies at a ceremony in the Victoria Halls last week.

Though this year’s awards list featured winners from across Argyll and Bute, three of the seven prizes went to clubs or individuals from the Helensburgh and Lomond area – prompting LiveArgyll to hold a special event to mark their achievements.

As previously reported in the Advertiser, the ‘club of the year’ accolade went to Helensburgh Netball Club, while Skye Evans was chosen as the ‘primary young leader’ winner for her work with pupils at Cardross Primary, and Helensburgh Hockey Club’s Barry Cox was honoured with the ‘service to sport’ prize.

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Barry was unable to attend the presentation ceremony on October 23, but his wife Sue was there to collect the awards on his behalf, alongside the other winners – and several of the nominees.

Twelve-year-old Skye, who is now a pupil at Hermitage Academy, was joined by another Cardross pupil, Catriona Smith, and teacher Katie Adirangga, both of whom were nominated for awards, while the netball club was represented by Emma Wright and Janet Hogg.

Skye, a keen gymnast and dancer, who was accompanied by her parents Amanda and Richard at the event, admitted she was “surprised” to hear she had been chosen as the winner of the young leader award for her work with Cardross Primary’s sports council.

Teacher Katie added: “We’ve always been heavily involved with sport in Cardross, and we’ve been working a lot with sportscotland, who suggested we needed more lunchtime clubs for younger children.

“Skye and the other pupils on our sports council did a lot of work in infant PE sessions – for example, Skye demonstrated how to do gymnastic moves like forward rolls properly.

“The sports council is also about developing leadership skills, giving pupils confidence and life skills they can take further in the future.”

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The full list of Helensburgh and Lomond nominees included no fewer than five from Cardross Primary – Katie for the adult youth coach award, and Aron King and Emily Ferguson alongside Skye and Catriona for the young leader prize.

Helensburgh Hockey Club received three nominations in addition to Barry’s win – Gordon Black for the adult youth coach accolade and Mark Findlay for the young coach award, while the club as a whole was nominated for the club of the year prize.

Martial Arts Helensburgh was also nominated three times – for sporting achievement of the year, club of the year, and service to sport for coach Steve McLaren.

Paul Reaney from Helensburgh Youth Rugby was among the adult youth coach nominees, and Helensburgh Tae Kwon Do’s Kirsten Barrett was short-listed for the ‘community coach’ prize.

LiveArgyll’s chairman, Andrew Nisbet, said: “An independent panel made up of sportscotland representatives, the LiveArgyll senior management team, the LiveArgyll board and local sportsmen and women scored the nominations.

“We received more than 60 individual nominations in seven categories. And, when I look back to last year’s awards, volunteers from Helensburgh Tennis Club and Helensburgh Athletics Club won awards, so clearly sporting volunteering is alive and well in this area.”

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