Young athlete runs the distance to claim Dale Farm Sports Award
Young Newtownards athlete Amy Foster has ‘sprinted to the finish’ claiming the 2009 Dale Farm Sports Award and a career boosting £5000 bursary! Presented with the Award by Dale Farm’s Andrew Nethercott and special guest Dame Mary Peters DBE at today’s Mary Peters Track ceremony, Amy beat off stiff competition to become the fourth winner of the coveted title.
One of Ireland’s top sprinters, Amy was chosen for the Award by an expert sporting panel from the Mary Peters Trust and leading dairy business Dale Farm, who together launched the award in 2006 to support home-grown talent. She now joins previous recipients including Belfast boxer and Olympic medalist Paddy Barnes and ice-skating champion Jenna McCorkell in an impressive sporting ‘Hall of Fame’.
The current 100m Irish and Northern Irish champion, 20 year old Amy made her mark winning the Irish Championship in her first year as a senior athlete. Her 2009/2010 schedule will see her defend these titles as well as compete at international level at the European U23 Championships this summer.
“I’m completely overwhelmed to have won,” said Amy. “Securing funding is becoming more and more difficult for young athletes so it’s fantastic to know that organisations like Dale Farm are prepared to invest in us. To support my training costs, I had been working two part-time jobs which took up valuable training time but now I can focus my full attention on improving my running as much as possible.”“The funding will help particularly this summer when I go to Lithuania for the European Championships. Hopefully gaining this international experience will allow me to reach my goals of competing for Northern Ireland at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and later at the London 2012 Olympics.”
With the standard of finalists remaining consistently high, this year Dale Farm and the Mary Peters Trust also added even further value to their Award – currently the largest single bursary available in Northern Ireland – by providing an additional prize fund of £750 each for the two runners-up cricketer Paul Stirling and cyclist Conor McConvey both from Belfast.
“This year’s entries again were of first class standard proving just how vital this support is to young athletes here,” said Brian Beattie, Dale Farm’s Head of Marketing. “Amy stood out in the judging as a perfect example of a young athlete who is working tirelessly to achieve her goals and who would benefit greatly from our support. We are delighted that the Dale Farm Sports Award will now help propel another young athlete onto the international sporting stage.”“We would also like to congratulate our runners up, Connor and Paul, who will each receive £750 towards their career development. Both young men are fantastic ambassadors for their respective sports and we wish them the best of luck in their upcoming calendars.”
Dame Mary Peters DBE, President of the Mary Peters Trust and Lord Lieutenant of Belfast, also passed on her congratulations to the new Dale Farm Sports Award winner, “Amy is a very worthy winner and I look forward to seeing her career blossom over the coming years. Selecting a winner this year was tougher than ever due to the high calibre of the entrants- yet provided an encouraging measure of our country’s sporting future. Reaching this level in sport requires a high level of commitment so all of the finalists should be proud of their achievements.”
