Scotby hammer thrower Nick Miller leads Cumbria Sports Award winners

Miller, from Scotby, this year competed at the World Athletics Championships in London and produced a best-ever finish by a British athlete at the event coming sixth.

The 24-year-old Commonwealth silver medallist is a relative youngster in the hammer but holds the British record and was also awarded the Freeborn Cup for the longest throw this year.

Miller was crowned as the winner of the prestigious award last night as 200 guests, including World Cup-winner Paul Simpson , congratulated winners at the glittering event held at the Low Wood Bay Resort Hotel in Windermere.

Former Carlisle United manager Simpson was named Cumbria’s Coach of the Year after leading England’s Under-20s to world glory.

England topped their group with wins over six-time champions Argentina and the hosts South Korea, before beating Costa Rica, Mexico and Italy to set-up a final against Venezuela.

And a goal from Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin was enough to give England a 1-0 win, and their first World Cup victory at any level since 1966.

Malcolm Wilson’s Dovenby Hall-based M-Sport were crowned team of the year.

M-Sport have had an excellent season, winning the highly-competitive World Rally Championship by a massive 83 points against the manufacturing might of Hyundai, Toyota and Citroen.

As well as winning the team title, they also won the driver’s championship with Sébastien Ogier, and co-drivers championships with Julien Ingrassia finishing 24 points clear of their nearest rivals.

Workington Comets’ speedway sensation Craig Cook picked up the Cumbria Performance of the Year gong.

Cook, from Cleator, has had an amazing 2017.

Captain of Comets in the Championship, Belle Vue Aces in the Premiership and also skipper of the Great Britain national team, this year he was crowned British champion, having finished runner-up in the previous three years.

He breezed to victory at his home track, barely losing a point all night as his superior riding saw him pull away from his competitors. The victory ensured he would qualify for the 2018 Speedway Grand Prix Championships, fighting it out with the world’s best riders to be crowned the best rider on the planet.

Teenage jockey Connor Murtagh won the special award.

A former pupil of Caldew School in Carlisle, Murtagh was born with a heart condition which required lifesaving open heart surgery at just 10 days old. This has been followed by two more such operations during his short life, the last as recently as September last year.

Six months after this latest heart surgery, he had his first professional ride, aged just 16, and went on to win the race on the aptly named Symbolic Star at odds of 25-1 in front of cheering crowds at Newcastle.

Since then, he has had more than 220 professional rides and so far has 19 winners.

His heart specialist, Professor Samarou, said he is probably the only professional sportsman in the world competing at the highest level with such a serious heart condition. Murtagh is a young man living his dream but, to many, he is a true inspiration.

Trevor “Jock” Nugent from Appleby AFC claimed the Service to Sport Award.

Nugent has been devoted to his football club for nearly 60 years. In his playing days, he was an all-action centre forward, and when his playing days were over, he coached and managed the first-team.

His roles within the club have continued every year since and he now washes the shirts, takes care of training equipment, sees that the goalposts are out, ensures maintenance tasks are undertaken and he rarely misses a game.

The winner of the Young Sports Leader/Volunteer of the Year Award was Isaac Butterworth .

Butterworth, from Penrith, has been leading in the world of rugby union, volunteering with Cumbria RFU for a number of years, gaining qualifications in refereeing and coaching to support both his club and school in terms of their internal infrastructure.

On top of this, he is also a prominent member of the Penrith RUFC Colts team and manages to balance his playing, academic, refereeing and volunteering commitments.

He was recently recognised by the RFU where he refereed at Twickenham before the England v France Men’s and Women’s fixtures.

Wigton’s Manchester City footballer Beau Studholme , Workington athlete Oliver Dustin , rugby’s Cameron Purdham , Calthwaite’s Poppy Scholefield and Sedbergh School shooter Daisy Armstrong were the five rising star award winners.

And the Be Inspired Award went to runner Gary McKee .

As a prolific fundraiser for various charities, McKee took on his biggest challenge to date this year.

Starting on January 14, he ran 100 consecutive marathons in 100 consecutive days, finishing with the London Marathon on April 23.

He wasn’t satisfied with “just” 26.2 miles per day, but ran extra every day so that he had extra miles in the bag in case of not being able to run on one of the days.

These extra contingency miles weren’t needed and he undertook this challenge while still finding time to go to work and having family time.

Not only did this challenge result in the winner raising more than £102,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support, but it got the whole community involved. Almost every day he had support from local people either running or cycling alongside him.

His efforts have been noticed by many and, on October 20, he was given the Freedom of the Borough of Copeland.

Other award winners were Ulverston Victoria High School Junior Girls Orienteering team, Kendal’s jogging pals, Cumbria Wheelchair Sports Club’s Nat Pattinson, Robbie Skelton and Junior Sports Personality of the Year Curtis Anderson.

Organised by Active Cumbria, the awards recognise the outstanding talents, commitment and successes of teams and individuals throughout Cumbria who are involved in sport.

Chairman of the Cumbria Sports Awards judging panel Richard Johnson said: “The awards were a superb event and an excellent opportunity to celebrate the enormous effort and talents of the sporting stars of Cumbria.

“We had some great nominations for the awards this year and I know that our judging panel had a real task to choose all of the deserving winners. It just goes to show what great talent and dedication to sport that we have in the county.

“The support of the media and our awards sponsors continue to make these awards a massive success, acknowledging the quality of our major sports performers and our emerging talent, as well as recognising the very important role played by the army of volunteers and coaches in Cumbria.”