Oldham’s pride at sports awards

Simon Bruce Lake . . . joint winner

OLDHAMERS spoke of their pride at being nominated for gongs at the Greater Manchester Sports Awards.

Despite coming away empty-handed from the Point, Lancashire Cricket Club, our leading lights rubbed shoulders with stars of last summer, including four-times gold medalist Paralympic cyclist David Weir, Jade Jones, who bagged Olympic gold in Taekwondo, and Lutalo Muhammad, Taekwondo bronze medalist.

And the Oldham representatives were already winners, having taken accolades at the Oldham Sports Awards.

Our nominees, up against the nine other Greater Manchester boroughs, were Phil Dean (volunteer of the year), Ben Proctor (disabled sports achiever of the year), Jessica Lloyd (sports achiever of the year), Simon Bruce Lake (physical activity achiever of the year), Pam Hazelton (coach of the year), Oldham Netball Club (club of the year) and Steve Lynch (unsung Hero of the year).

Steve, who sadly passed away after receiving his Oldham Sports Award, was represented by his proud colleagues from Chadderton Park.

Simon, who lost five stones in 14 months by changing his diet and organising park runs, was named joint winner alongside the rest of the nominees in his category.

He said: “It was an absolute privilege to be there. My message to people from Oldham is that anyone can lose weight by doing what I have done.”

Chadderton Park vice-chairman Terry Jennings said: “We felt it was important to keep Steve’s nomination and come to the Point to honour him. We are all very proud of Steve and what he achieved.

After the glitz and glamour of the awards ceremony it was immediately back to business for swimmers Ben and Jessica who, after short post-London 2012 breaks, are now in their regular training patterns.
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