Outstanding achievements by Fareham sports stars

Fareham was represented at the awards with three nominations among the 18 award categories and three winners.

Joanna Corben won master sportsperson of the year for her outstanding achievements in swimming during 2015 for Fareham Nomads and Kelly Wallis won participation coach of the year for her contribution and support to netball in the area.

Whiteley gymnast Kelly Simm took home the senior sportswoman of the year award for her achievements in gymnastics throughout 2015.

Among those shortlisted were Cams Chaos Netball Club for club of the year, Jennie Bowles for junior volunteer of the year and Aron Ahluwalia for participation coach of the year.

Joanna said: ‘I was incredibly surprised to be nominated, so to win the award was overwhelming and just amazing.

‘It’s a lovely event for people who put so much hard work into their sport, in whatever capacity, to come together and celebrate sport and to feel valued.’

Participation coach Kelly said: ‘I was really pleased to be nominated and shortlisted and completely surprised to have won. Netball is my job, I love it and it is nice to be recognised for what we do for the sport.

‘It’s been a lovely evening, it’s been nice to get out of my netball trainers and meet other people and discuss everybody’s achievements.’

The annual celebration of sport was hosted and run by Hampshire County Council and Sport Hampshire & IOW and is a joint venture with the local sports councils and forums in Hampshire.

It is the only county-wide event to publicly reward commitment, performance and excellence across all sports, in coaching, volunteering, participation and performance.

There were more than 320 nominations this year, which is a record number of entries.