Local athletes, sports teams and groups were honoured at our H&F Sports Awards ceremony on Thursday night (19 September).
Every winner had been nominated anonymously by the public and received their award at Fulham’s Sands End Arts and Community Centre.
The guest of honour was England netballer Sonia Mkoloma, who helped celebrate our local sporting heroes and shared some of her own sporting highlights.
Cllr Sharon Holder, H&F Cabinet Member for Public Realm, said:
Congratulations to everyone who was nominated for a Sports Award this evening.
Whether you’re on the side lines coaching or out on the pitch playing, your hard work and dedication is incredibly impressive and there’s no doubt you inspire others daily to get involved. I can’t wait to see what you all go on to do next.”
Defying the odds
The evening was divided into three award categories – London Youth Games awards, Community awards and GLL Sport Foundation awards.
The highlight was seeing Ethiopian refugee Trhas Teklehaimanot Tesfay, 22, named Sports and Physical Activity Person of the Year.
Trhas, who now lives in Hammersmith, came to the UK for the August 2023 Glasgow Cycling World Championships but couldn’t return home due to conflict in Ethiopia. The government's 2020 military operations in Tigray displaced millions, prompting many like Trhas to flee.
After five months using a stationary gym bike, local charity West London Welcome and Team Africa Rising connected her with cycling's world governing body who provided her with a professional racing bike.
Trhas, who uses Richmond Park as her training ground, said:
I'm still training hard and hoping to make it to the World Championships. Training in London is very different to cycling at home, but the traffic's not too bad. Especially if you go early Saturday or Sunday."
British Cycling granted her a racing licence enabling her to compete at a national level and she has been invited to join the Refugee Team at the Cycling World Championships in Switzerland later this year.
Her notable cycling achievements include becoming National Champion in 2021 and 2023 at the Ethiopia Women's Road Race. She also won the African Continental Junior Women's individual time trial in 2019 and was named the Ethiopia Junior Women's individual time trial National Champion.
On top of the demands of her training schedule, Trhas has put in hours of effort to learn English.
Living in Hammersmith is really lovely - I feel very welcome and supported here. The people are so warm and I am very proud to have won this award."
The other winners of the 2024 H&F Sports Awards were as follows:
The London Youth Games Awards
The winners of the London Youth Games’ top coach award were Bram Montgomery and Craig Coltham who coach the Girls Swimming Team – H&F’s only competitive swimming club.
They were nominated for their work training H&F’s junior swim team who this year won the borough’s first gold medal in the Games’ girls swimming competition.
H&F’s Girls Swimming Team won the London Youth Games outstanding team performance award.
Selvi Krishna won the London Youth Games’ rising star award.
Selvi won gold in the 25m backstroke for the second year in a row at the London Youth Games’ Para-Swimming competition. She’s currently being considered by Swim England for national squad selection.
Community Awards
Elroy Ferns won this year’s Volunteer of the Year award for his work as a member of Our Lady of Fatima Church, White City, and as a volunteer for their community projects.
I volunteer because I can. It’s easy and it’s a great way to give back to the community. For me I think this is not an award for myself it’s an award for all of the volunteers. It’s a great award for recognition, for me I’m honoured to receive it but I would like to receive it for the team. All volunteering takes is an hour. In our food project there’s so many roles that you can do."
He works as part of the White City Community Food Project's leadership team and helps organise volunteers, manages the weekly food distribution and works weekends to receive food deliveries.
Chastyn Quesada was named winner of this year’s Young Ambassador award. Chastyn joined Fulham Reach Boat Club’s junior team on a bursary and has grabbed every opportunity to volunteer and represent the boat house – even training to become a rowing coach.
H&F’s Dementia Action Alliance won the Inclusive Project of the Year award for their community events including tea dances, Silver Social lunches and their work developing H&F Council’s Active Minds programme.
Ella Rennie was named Junior Sportsperson of the Year. Nationally she is ranked second in the UK for U17s 100m sprint, she won fifth place at the National Championships for the 200m and secured first place at the South of England Champion in both the 100m and 200m.
Non-profit grassroots club Aspire FC won the award for best engaging sports or physical activity project.
Aspire FC was nominated for their work engaging young people of all abilities and backgrounds in sport. The club hosts weekends away, sport competitions and partners with other local youth centres. This year they created a girls’ super league and hosted a football match at St George’s Park, the official home of English Football.
Briony Brock, Head Girls Coach at Shepherds Bush Cricket Club, won this year’s Coach of the Year award.
She’s helped grow the team from a handful of girls to more than 70. Briony is focused on reducing barriers to cricket for girls. Recently she worked with the players and local female-founded businesses to design and sponsor a new kit the squad feel comfortable in.
Dream Fencing Club, Fulham, was name Sports Organisation of the Year. The club offers training camps to children of all ages and backgrounds. The U12 girls won first and second place at the 2024 British Youth Nationals, and the U11 boys were named the English Youth Championships.
Kevin Smith won our Outstanding Contribution award.
For 20 years Kevin has dedicated his spare time to helping young people across H&F access sport. His work’s included setting up boxing clubs in Fulham, establishing the SAFE camp at Phoenix Academy more than 15 years ago, supporting H&F’s London Youth Games’ cross country and mini marathon trials and more.
Ben Coleman, MP for Chelsea & Fulham, said:
Sports are a key part of building a healthier, more inclusive and more enjoyable future. I was delighted to attend the awards and help celebrate all the individuals, groups and organisations that, along with the council, make our community better through sport.”
GLL Sport Foundation Awards
GLL sponsored the Sports Awards and also celebrated local sporting talents with awards celebrating their accomplishments over the past year.
Taekwondo awards
Hafsa Dahir, 16, was nominated for winning the Taekwondo Kixstar London Open competition.
Adam Hassan, 7, was nominated for winning a silver medal at the Taekwondo National Championships.
Fabio Carvalho, 14, was nominated for ranking number one in his age group in Taekwondo.
Saskia Parn, 11, was nominated for being named national age group champion in Taekwondo.
Mia Parn, 14, was nominated for being named National Champion and British International Open winner in Taekwondo.
Ubaydullah Mohamed, 14, a Taekwondo British national champion was nominated for winning a gold medal at the Swedish open.
Umaymah Mohamed, 17, a Taekwondo British national champion was nominated for winning a gold medal at the Riga open.
Nadia Omar, 18, was nominated for winning a bronze medal at the Taekwondo British National Champions.
Fatimazahra Nur, 16, who won a silver medal at the Taekwondo British National Champions and said:
I think I've been learning Taekwondo for near enough 10 years but I was still definitely surprised when I found out I'd been nominated. I'm really happy to have won though."
Tennis awards
Christopher Murphy, 18, was nominated for winning a tennis AOC Men’s National Finals silver medal.
Harriet Graham, 8, was nominated for being named number one tennis player in her age group.
Fencing awards
Team GB fencer and Commonwealth Champion Christopher Mollard was nominated for his Olympic efforts.
Lea Panyadee-Cappelli, 13, was nominated for being ranked number one U14 fencer in Great Britain.
Further GLL awards
Nikita Goel, 13, was nominated for being ranked the 6th best Squash player in her age group.
Lara Marquez, 11, was nominated for winning the National Arena Swimming League this year.
Ella Rennie, 15, who was named Junior Sportsperson of the Year also received a GLL award.
