Revealed: the winners from the 2023 Cumbria Sports Awards

The latest awards, organised by Active Cumbria, recognised excellence in a range of sports in the county during the year.

Cumbria’s Sports Personality of the Year was Barrow footballer Georgia Stanway, who took the honour for the second year running.

The Lionesses and Bayern Munich star was a key player in England’s run to the World Cup final.

Georgia Stanway (Image: PA)

Junior sports personality of the year went to Kendal’s Gabriella Pettigrew, who won her third British taekwondo championship at the age of just ten.

Also recognising young talent is the rising star awards, which recognised three promising sports people.

Ski racing’s Jake Armitstead, from Kendal, has enjoyed an impressive year which included the under-16 British Dry Slope Ski title, while he was also this year named most improved Under 14/16 boy or girl on dry slope of Alpine, by Snowsports England.

Carlisle swimmer Amber Rigg, 15, also won a rising star award after a record-breaking year.

She won county and north west regional titles in 2023, qualified for a host of top British events – achieving three silver and two bronze medals – and has broken a number of age group and junior county records, earning her selection for the England National Youth Development Programme.

A third rising star is seven-year-old Frankie McMillan from fell-hiking and mountain-climbing.

The Drigg youngster this year became the youngest Briton ever to climb the highest peak – Mytikas – on Mount Olympus in Greece, one of Europe’s highest mountains.

Frankie had, by then, completed his 214th and final Wainwright, while the youngster has raised a large amount of money for Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team.

The Becky Underwood Volunteer of the Year award was presented to James Fitt from Wigton RUFC.

“In addition to being a key player in the Wigton RUFC senior squad James dedicates countless hours to the team’s development and the club as a whole,” the judges said.

“He takes care of several roles from seeking kit sponsorships and designing kits to coaching and fundraising James has become the ‘go to’ person for anything that the club’s needs and is referred to as ‘an excellent club man’.

“James has dedicated his time to raise the profile of the club creating an on-line presence through website and social media development and created connections with the Rugby focused mental health charity ‘Loose Heads’ as well as regularly arranging club socials.

Carlisle’s Joe Birch from Tug of War was named Coach of the Year, described as the “driving force” for the England Junior team.

The Service to Sport Award, meanwhile, went to 85-year-old Les Middleton from Barrow – a stalwart of Barrow and Furness Athletic Club for over 40 years.

The award recognised his involvement in many roles in that time, including coaching, officiating, committee member, fundraising, organising the end of year awards evening and being chairman club.

He has held another of other positions in county athletics, organises the annual Dalton Charter 10k, attends all the Cumbria and Mid Lancashire league fixtures, and was the driving force behind acquiring a new track after 26 years without one in the area.

The Community Club or Group of the Year award went to west Cumbrian group Bee Unique FC, a pan disability football club formed by the Bee Unique Autism charity which educates, embraces, and entertains those who have the diagnosis or currently in the process of diagnosis of Autism and those with associated learning conditions.

The volunteer-led club hold football training sessions, matches and large family fun days which benefit thousands of people.

The Active Education award went to Step Up and Play, a programme designed and led by Barrow head teacher Steve Herbert, the programme helping children from Central Ward in Barrow-in-Furness to attend and become part of sports clubs in the area.

The Junior Team of the Year award was awarded to Trinity School U13 Girls’ Football Team, who in 2023 reached the EFL Utilita Cup Final at Wembley, as well as winning the National Under-13 Development Cup.

Barrow Raiders Ladies Team were crowned Team of the Year after achieving Super League status, while Performance of the Year and Disability Performance of the Year went to Carlisle athlete Becky Seaton.

In 2016, Becky received a new kidney and pancreas – and, six years later, was selected for the British Transplant Games and in the same year picked to represent Team GB in the European Transplant games.

This year Becky represented Team GB at the World Transplant Games achieving major individual and team success including five gold medals and one silver medal.

A special award, meanwhile, was awarded to Carlisle United in recognition of their memorable promotion to League One under Paul Simpson this year.

Richard Johnston, chair of the Cumbria Sports Awards judging panel, said: “In this, the 44th year of the Cumbria Sports Awards the judging panel are once again overwhelmed by the number and quality of nominations.

“Every year, we hear of new names and their outstanding achievements, and the awards provide an opportunity to showcase the incredible range of great sporting talent in the county. It’s never an easy task deciding on the winners.

“We would like to congratulate not only our incredible winners but all of this year’s nominees.

“As always, there was some fierce competition with so many great nominations, and we had well over 100 separate individuals and teams put forward.

“Many of the categories were almost impossible to judge with so many great nominations.

“I’d like to thank our judging panel for their time, and everyone who took the time to submit a nomination.”