On Monday 1st October the England Athletics Regional Awards were held at Gateshead International Stadium.
And as a measure of how far Tyne Bridge Harriers has come since being formed 18 months ago, it was nominated in the Development Club of the Year category.
Unfortunately, the club missed out on the award after being pipped by close neighbours, Heaton Harriers, but just to be recognised within the athletics community is great testament to the club.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom on the night as one Tyne Bridge’s closest allies, The Tony Blair Sports Foundation, won the Community Partner Award for the North East region.
The Community Partner Award is given to an organisation that has contributed to the development and growth of athletics in their local community during the last 12 months. The Tony Blair Sports Foundation has worked closely with a number of partner athletics clubs across the North East to support their growth and sustainability, by making sure that these clubs have enough qualified volunteer coaches to grow and support their members.
One club which the Foundation has worked very closely with is Tyne Bridge Harriers. In the last 12 months alone the Foundation has supported the Harriers in recruiting and qualifying 20 Leaders in Running Fitness, and four individuals in the process of undertaking the Coach in Running Fitness qualification. This ensures that Tyne Bridge Harriers are able to support runners of all abilities and their success and growth since they were set up in 2011 was also recognised at the England Athletics Regional Awards where Steve Allerdyce and Paul Hilton of Tyne Bridge Harriers were presented with the Runners Up award in the Development Club of the Year category.
Other members and partners of The Tony Blair Sports Foundation whose achievements were recognised at the awards ceremony included Victoria Spence, Mike Powell and Ian Young from Blackhill Bounders, Tim Dredge of Sedgefield Harriers, Hemant Desai of the Northumberland Athletics Network (NAN), Nathan Rogerson from Blyth Valley Arts and Leisure (BVAL), Tommy Brannon of North of Tyne Athletics Network (NOTAN) and Guillaume Zoppi from Heaton Harriers.
On behalf of Tyne Bridge Harriers congratulations to all winners!
