Half a dozen talented young sportsmen and women from Annandale and Eskdale have recently been given a funding boost to help in their endeavours this year.
Silver “Welcome to Langholm” Future Champions Awards of £500 have been awarded to 17-year-old Rugby League player Ben Jardine from Langholm and Rugby Union player, Lily Glendinning, aged 19 from Eastriggs.
Bronze awards of £250 have been presented to Rugby Union players, 15-year-old Scarlett Crossan Brown and 20-year-old Bailey Donaldson – both from Langholm – Taekwondo student, Zak Piercy, and athlete Erin Quinn, who are both aged 15 and from Annan.
Ben is currently on a two-year scholarship with the Newcastle Thunder Rugby League club – the North East’s only professional Rugby League Club and based at Kingston Park – and also hopes to study physiotherapy at Newcastle University.
He currently trains three days a week with the under 17 and under 19 squads and has regular games in the age groups against some of the top clubs.
Ben, who remains part of the Scotland Under 18 Rugby League set up, has recently gained from playing alongside first team players at Newcastle during training.
Prior to lockdown, Lily was playing with Annan Warriors’ ladies rugby team and at Napier University, as well as being part of the Scotland Under 20 Squad. During lockdown she was part of a Scottish online training community with regular training sessions being delivered by Scottish players and coaches.
She also used the time during and between lockdowns to help coach the Under 12 – Under 18 girl’s squads at Annan Rugby Club and delivered online training sessions for Edinburgh Harlequins.
She made the transition to premiership rugby team, Corstorphine Cougars, last year and in January was invited to be a part of “Athlete Focused” – an online based athlete performance group.
Now that restrictions have been lifted, Lily trains up to three times a week with Corstorphine Cougars and scored a try on her recent debut in which she was nominated as the coach’s player of the match.
When the Scotland National programme re-opens later this year, Lily hopes to be part of the Scotland set up once more.
Scarlett is also on her way to being a rugby star. Before the pandemic she trained twice a week with the East Lothian Girls Rugby Team in Edinburgh and her heavy scoring in her last game before lockdown at the Oriam Sports Performance Centre at Heriot Watt University helped her team win the tournament.
On Saturday, she enjoyed her first game back with her East Lothian Girls team in Galashiels.
As well as playing, Scarlett also helps coach the mini section at Langholm Rugby Club and helped with the club’s recent summer camp at the club.
Prior to lockdown, Bailey had signed for Hawick RFC after excelling for Langholm and with the Borders Squads which resulted in him captaining the Scotland Under 18 Club XV. He also made several appearances for the clubs Rugby 7’s team.
Bailey has now resumed training with the club and he aims to secure a regular starting position in the 1st XV team.
Before lockdown, Zak was competing in the 10–17-year-old category at the Scottish, English, UK, European and World Championships for UKTC World ITF in blue and red Belt.
He won Taekwondo gold medals at the Scottish, English and UK Championships, a bronze medal at the European Championships and a gold medal while competing for Scotland at the World Championships.
Zak is currently working towards his Black Belt and following lockdown has started to travel regularly to Alloa and Cumbernauld to train with Grand Master Harkess who is a 9th degree black belt.
He will compete in the World Championships online in October, before the European Championships in November and it will be the first competition “in person” since lockdown in March last year.
He has set his sights on the Chang Ung Cup, an award given to the competitor with the highest number of points in a single category.
Erin currently competes in discuss and hammer with Victoria Park City Athletics Club in Glasgow.
She trains with her coach, Jim Green, twice weekly at Kilbarchan Amateur Athletics Club as well as training twice weekly at the Everholm Running Track in Annan or in Carlisle.
Erin was able to return to competition in May, following lockdown, and travelled to Leigh for her first Under 17 event in which she threw personal bests to win both the discus and hammer.
She has since attended various throws events across Scotland and Northern England, including the Scottish Athletics Throws Grand Prix, Scottish Joint League (representing Team West of Scotland), Cumbria School of Hammer, Victoria Park Together Apart, and an invitational hammer competition with Olympian Chris Bennett. These events have resulted in further PB’s in the Hammer (43.80m) and Discus (30.49m).
The “Welcome to Langholm” Future Champions Awards are funded by The Stevenson Trust, The Bowman Little Trust, The Auchterlonie Future Champions Awards, The Arthur Bell of Langholm Trust and The Stoneypath Trust.
