Herefordshire Sport announces 2010 award-winners (From Hereford Times)

Herefordshire Sport announces 2010 award-winners

8:30am Monday 14th February 2011 in Sport By Ian Morgan

ROB Weale has won the 2010 Herefordshire Sport’s Sportsman of the Year award - but he won’t be around to receive his honour next week.

The Hereford-born bowls star will be on the other side of the world competing at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

It is the third time that Weale has won the county honour - having previously clinched it in 1996 and 2000.

Weale enjoyed an exceptional 2010 - which secured his invite to the southern hemisphere’s biggest bowling event.

The Presteigne bowler won a men’s singles gold medal for Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

In doing so, Herefordbased Weale became the most successful bowler in the history of the Games.

He also carried the Welsh flag in the Games’ closing ceremony and was runner-up in the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year competition.

The Hereford Timessponsored Herefordshire Sport Awards 2010 are taking place next Thursday (February 17) at the Royal National College for the Blind.

Great Britain triathlete Nicola Goodwin will be picking up the Sportswoman of the Year accolade.

Goodwin, from Dinedor, will be stepping on to the podium for the second time - after first winning the women’s honour in 1997.

The 36-year-old broadcast journalist was an England women’s rugby player when she first carried off the title.

Now, however, Goodwin is a dedicated member of Hereford Triathlon Club and trains up to 30 hours a week during the season.

Last summer, she brought home a silver medal at the European Long Course Age Group Championships in Spain.

Goodwin took second place in the 35 to 39 age group and was the sixth woman overall in the race.

She also represented Weale proves elite status with trip to Melbourne Great Britain at the World long-distance triathlon championships in Germany, finishing 12th in the women’s 35-39 age group.

“After I gave up rugby in 2002, I did a bit of cross country running and I did OK and then someone suggested that it would be worth doing triathlon - and I really enjoyed it,” said Goodwin, Hereford Triathlon Club’s secretary.

“Training in Herefordshire has been made so much easier for me as I have two great coaches; the former paralympic coach Bill Berry who helps me with my cycling and running and Julie Hardman who first started coaching me swimming when I was six years old. I'm also given free access to Halo leisure facilities which helps with costs."

She has also secured qualification to November’s World Long Distance Championships in Nevada.

Para-dressage rider Alison Moore has captured the Disabled Sportsperson award for the second year in succession.

Moore, from Orleton, finished second and third in her two sections at a major twoday competition in Germany.

Moore was among six Para riders from Great Britain who had been selected to compete as individuals.

Rounders player Olivia Major, who has had a big role in developing the sport in Herefordshire, is the junior female winner.

The Hereford Sixth Form college student captained England Under-18 and gained selection to the England Under-21 rounders squad. She has been asked to take on the England Under-14 development coach role.

Nineteen-year-old canoeist George Tatchell, from Checkley, has won the junior male award.

Tatchell clinched a gold medal for Great Britain at the Junior Canoe Slalom World Championships in the French Pyrenees.

He was part of GB’s C1 men’s team which triumphed in Foix.

Tatchell also took a silver medal at the Junior and Under-23 European Canoe Slalom Championships in Leipzig, Germany.

He was part of the GB C2 team which secured an impressive secondplaced finish on the podium.

“It was definitely the best season I have ever had,” said Tatchell, Hereford Asda’s Sporting Chance athlete in 2010.

“It might be tough to gain selection for London 2012 because there’s 10 people who could go - and there’s only one place,” he said. “The 2016 Olympics will be more realistic,” said Tatchell.

Tatchell has just resumed training after recovering from a broken collarbone which he sustained after falling off his bike.

Å More winners will be revealed in next week’s Hereford Times.