from Athletic Northern Ireland website Ballymena & Antrim AC have won the prestigious UK Club of the Year Award at the annual UK Athletics Awards in Birmingham which are sponsored by Heidsieck & Co Monopole Champagne. The UK Athletics Awards Dinner 2008 celebrated the work of club members across the sport of athletics with a range of awards on a champagne evening at the National Motorcycle Museum.
There was also a champagne presentation to Team GB’s Paralympic heroes and Christine Ohuruogu was announced BOA athlete of the year on the evening.
The Ballymena & Antrim club were the regional Athletics Northern Ireland winners at a recent ceremony at the Mary Peters Track in Belfast. They were up against four other top clubs from across the UK including Kilmarnock Harriers (Scotland), Swansea Harriers (Wales) and Caithness Amateur AC and Chesterfield & District (East Midlands).
This is a fantastic achievement for the local club who have gone from strength to strength over the last number of years. Ballymena and Antrim AC is very much a club run by the members and is a club that dares to be different.
Across the age group championships Ballymena and Antrim has won 200 medals at Ulster and Irish level and has a host of athletes bettering the regional standard at various ages. Ballymena & Antrim has over 223 10-18 yr olds and there are over thirty coaches involved in the club.
It was originally founded by the committed and enthusiastic Maeve and Sean Kyle.
Maeve accompanied Melanie and Bobby Brown to receive their award.
Melanie commented:
“It’s a brilliant accolade not only for the Club, but for athletics in the province.
I believe this is the first time that this type of award has been bestowed to a Club in Northern Ireland and hopefully it will encourage other Clubs.
It is fantastic to receive recognition for all the athletes, coaches and volunteers at the Club who all work together in developing the next generation of elite and club athletes.”
[Pictured: Maeve, Melanie and Bobby with their Club of the Year Award] Official photos to follow.