Official of the year: Matt Witt

Matt is a level 3 track judge who officiates at Club, County and Regional events in the county of Cambridgeshire across the East of England and nationally.  Matt is enthusiastic, keen and always willing to learn.

Matt also mentors other officials and is an inspiration to young officials starting out in the sport.

His enthusiasm is infectious and he invests time and energy in developing himself and others. He also has coordinated the Cambridgeshire Sportshall league in previous years.
 

Services to Officiating: Mike Parmiter

Mike is a well known face in the officials’ fraternity who has shown both commitment and diversity to his officiating and in supporting other officials over his years of service. He has written two editions of “How to Judge Field Events”.

His longevity speaks for itself and he also contributes to developing new officials and has mentored other officials for many years.

Mike is held in high esteem in by officials all over England and the UK – a knowledgeable, enthusiastic, kind, helpful and personable man who is an inspiration to everyone.

Young Volunteer of the year: Kathrine Foy

Kathrine has demonstrated innovation as part of her work with the Lee Valley Athletics Network this year and has led volunteering projects that have focusing on officiating and in facilitating competition activities.

Kathrine is now one of eight youth ambassadors for the Network, helping to promote and shape the network’s work.

She is a dedicated athlete competing for both her club Woodford Green with Essex Ladies, and university, St. Mary’s Richmond.

Services to Volunteering: Ian Clarke

Ian’s voluntary service to running has spanned more than two decades and additionally as an active volunteer in the county and region, Ian is licence officer for Worcestershire, Road race secretary and county rep.

He is often found race refereeing local and regional races and advising community organisations such as Scout groups to set up their own safe and successful races.

He also regularly volunteers to help runners by crewing check points in ultra races and marshalling with other club members and at Inter counties and cross countries leagues when needed.

Services to Disability: Jen Slade

Jen was winner of the SW Regional Award in 2010, just 2 yrs after starting a group for disabled athletes at Yeovil Olympiads – and then Taunton AC. Since then Jen's involvement, inspiration and success has continued to thrive - both within the club, but also across the Region.

Within Yeovil Olympiads there are now a number of disabled athletes covering every impairment group, performance level, event and age groups. Many of these athletes are now integrated within existing training groups and coaches. This includes seated throws, wheelchair racing, sprints and throws.

Development Club of the year: Sedgefield Harriers

Six years after Sedgefield Harriers were formed, they now boast a membership that exceeds 60 adults and 120 juniors. These athletes are supported by a network of 16 coaches delivering up to 13 training sessions per week covering the breadth of athletic events all ages.

This work has also seen the club gain England Athletics Club Mark status. The Club has three coaches enrolled on Local Coach Development Programme. The Club also uses Athletics 365, the Academy Awards and Startrack holiday programmes to help with the development of its junior athletes.

Athletics Network of the year: Oxfordshire Athletics Network

The Oxfordshire Athletics Network has demonstrated that it understands the development needs of clubs and coaches and the role that the network can play in supporting both clubs and coaches.

It has created more qualified Athletics Leaders; developed coaches through providing opportunities reflective of their needs; supported clubs to recruit, retain and reward volunteers and to gain Clubmark; enabled over 30 Under 20 athletes to participate at the National Junior League as part of a composite Network team and delivered a multi-skill athletics programme to over 160 children with links to local clubs.
 

Development Coach of the year: John Blackie

John has been involved in coaching for over 10 years and has had tremendous success in developing the athletic talents of hundreds of young people.

He started the Bees Academy five years ago and now more than 400 children attend weekly athletics coaching sessions. The initiative provides 16+ young athletes with the opportunity to coach by assisting with the coaching sessions. Children under the age of 13 are encouraged to try all athletics event and not to specialise too early.

John has also coached many County, Regional and National Champions in a wide range of events.
 

Services to Coaching: Norman Poole

Norman Poole has coached many athletes over a long career to Commonwealth and Olympic Standards, such as Diane Modahl, Ann Griffiths and Kevin McKay.

More recently his success has taken the form of Tom Lancashire and Mike Rimmer who will no doubt look to achieve great things over the next few years. Norman has extensive events knowledge across 800m to 5,000m.

As important as anything is the fact that Norman commits to passing on his knowledge and skills and also invests in mentoring others and has been a regular contributor to BMC coaching events and activities.

Services to Athletics:  Graham Heeley

Graham Heeley joined his father at the age ten going to Sparkhill Harriers. He progressed from athlete to assist in the running of the club eventually becoming Chairman. He was Team Manager and later secretary of the British Police Cross Country Team leading them to European Events across the Continent.

Within the Midland Counties AA he became Officials Secretary for Cross Country, and his officiating ability has been recognised by his appointments as Referee and International Technical Official at National, European and World Championships, as well as the Out of Stadia Referee for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

As well as Endurance events he is a Field official, again refereeing at many meetings at all levels of the sport.