Cycling Success at Sussex Sports Awards 2008
News Posted 11th December 2008
During an evening of celebrating Sport in Sussex at a glittering dinner and dance event at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton, Sussex based cyclists dominated in all three categories that they were short listed for.
Coach of the Year (sponsored by Wave Leisure)
During a tense and nervy atmosphere in front of over 200 guests from sports across Sussex, the short listed nominees for Coach of the Year were introduced with a summary of their dedication and achievements, before the golden envelope was opened.
In this category, “nominees had demonstrated a commitment to Continuous Professional Development, having attended training courses in the past year. This person may be coaching in a community sports club or clubs, and mentors other coaches and has made a real impact on sport in Sussex”.
To the roar of the cycling fraternity, Anthony Rogers was announced as the winner for his volunteer coaching activities with Preston Park Youth Cycling Club (PPYCC) at the Brighton track, over the 10 years that the club has been running, where he was instrumental in the planning of and setting up activities. Anthony is also a member of Brighton Excelsior CC (BECC) and is key to the partnership activities between PPYCC and VC Jubilee which is the youth development section of BECC.
Anthony thanked Roy Page (British Cycling South East Manager) for his nomination and said he “was honoured to be nominated and delighted to win the award”.
Club of the Year (sponsored by Rix & Kay Solicitiors)
After hearing the excellent news about Anthony, but still waiting in eager anticipation, 3 young members of VC Jubilee; Ben Gerrey, Nick Smith and Ben Miller who had joined key volunteers from the club, still all had their fingers crossed, could it be possible that there would be another cycling award tonight. Sussex and England cricketer Chris Adams who was master of ceremonies moved on to explain the type of commitment and progress that clubs needed to make in this category.
“Clubs needed to be Clubmark Accredited and be able to evidence success in and out of competition through ongoing development of participation within its community. The winning club would also have strong school and community links, be fully inclusive and welcome people from all backgrounds. The Sussex Club of the Year Award honours clubs that hold non-professional status but benefit the locality in an exceptional way”.
After the shortlist was announced a summary of the winning clubs nomination was read out and it became clear that VC Jubilee had been successful, leading to a huge cheer from the guests at the event.
During the rapturous applause, Sally Page (VCJ Club Contact and coach) led the representatives of the club up on stage to collect the fantastic engraved glass award and certificate. She said afterwards, “what a wonderful recognition of the club in its 10th anniversary year, I’m so glad that young members of the club are here to collect the award too as the club is all about them, they’ve achieved so much.” Comments from Ben, Nick and Ben, “I’m so chuffed, we must have had lots of votes”, “this is excellent news for the club and for cycling”, “Truly deserved, the club has helped me loads”. Comments also from Ian Essex a coach, “it’s amazing, I’m so proud to be part of this club”.
Dave Gerrey the Club Chairman said about the club, “VC Jubilee is an extremely friendly mountain bike club based in Shoreham-by-Sea and aimed at giving riders of all abilities and backgrounds the opportunity of discovering what they can achieve and gain from the sport of cycling. Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year the club was the first cycling club in the UK to gain Clubmark status and one of the first in all sports in Sussex. The club achieves a great level of family participation with many parents also discovering the joys of cycling the Sussex downs along with their children.”
He went on to say, “The club has forged strong links with a number of schools with club coaches running the after school clubs and working with the local “Bike-It” officer. Links also extend to other clubs in the area with a recent teaming agreement with Worthing Otters to enable their tri-athletes to benefit from the cycle coaching that the club offers. Just this week the club was joined by the Otters and the Preston Park Cycle Club with around 50 riders setting off from Shoreham-by-Sea.”
“The great strength of the club however, is that it encourages participation from those that just enjoy recreational cycling with no competitive element right up to those challenging for World honours. And not just in Mountain biking. All riders have the opportunity to try many other disciplines including cyclocross, road, time-trials, track, hill-climb, speedway and even cycle-polo. This support extends to the loan of specialised equipment, dedicated team and individual coaching along with the support necessary to succeed. Riders are encouraged to find what talents they have and then helped to develop them. In this seasons local track league 22 of the 60 youths entered were from VC Jubilee, with winners in four of the seven age categories.”
“My son summed it up in a speech recently. “VC Jubilee means different things to different people. To some, it’s about becoming the best cyclist they can and beating the rest. For others, it’s about beating their personal bests. For me, it’s about going cycling with friends, and having a great time”.
“I would struggle to find a better definition of a good sports club.”
Disabled Sports Personality of the Year (sponsored by West Sussex – Ahead of the Game)
On the shortlist for this award was David Stone who won double Paralympic Gold in Beijing in the road race and time trial. David is well known in the area by local clubs and a regular competitor in the Brighton Excelsior club time trials and has joined them on training rides from their base in Shoreham when he was studying at Sussex University.
Earlier in the evening he had been interviewed on stage with other Sussex based Olympians and as always, was quick to demonstrate his fantastic sense of humour. This was followed with a tribute to al athletes that participated in Beijing in the form of DVD footage of their fantastic success.
Again to the delight of the guests present, David was announced as the Winner in this category and he proudly went up on stage to collect his award.
To conclude the evening VC Jubilee arranged for all the cycling award winners to come together for a photocall to provide them al with a reminder of how successful the evening was. Joining him in the photograph (and wearing one of David’s Gold medals) is Gary Brickley the GB disability coach based at Brighton University.
This rounded of a fantastic evening with cycling continuing its winning form in 2008! What’s possible in 2009…?
For more information about VC Jubilee visit their website: www.vcjubilee.co.uk or call Sally on 01273 843859. We would welcome any further support from anyone wishing to coach, sponsor or volunteer at the club to continue with its success.
We are very proud to have had the opportunity of helping Peter Mitchell off on his cycling career, when he started with VC Jubilee at the age of 14; he went onto the Talent Team, and then the Olympic Development Squad. He has gone on to be successful in representing his country and becoming World Junior Sprint Champion in Mexico, 2007 and this month he has been selected to join the Olympic Academy and starts full time cycling. I’m sure we’ll be seeing him racing at the top level. This October the club also had two members selected to join on the Talent Team, Charlie Heffernan (14) and Amy Jacobs (13). We hope that they all will have many successes and continue as far as they want to go in this great sport.
Sally Page
VC Jubilee
