Celebrating youth sport

Organised by East Sussex County Council, more than 600 people from across the county attended the latest "Sports Development Awards" at the Winter Gardens in Eastbourne.

The event was the second awards evening to applaud the county's young sporting stars. Earlier in May young people who had competed at national or regional level were congratulated. At the latest event it was the turn of those who had represented the county on the national stage.

The awards are an annual scheme run by the County Council to encourage and support sporting achievements among 11-18-year-olds in the county. They include grants to help the young achievers with their sporting ambitions.

There were also team awards, teacher awards and high achieving sports leader awards. Over the two events a total of 17,000 is being awarded in grants.

After the event Matt Dunkley, Director of Children's Services at the County Council said: "It is great to see the wide range of sporting excellence and achievement in this county. These awards are about celebrating all the hard work and effort that goes into such success and also about providing help to support those young people with their sporting ambitions.

"We're also really pleased to be able to pay tribute to the teachers, leaders and coaches who help them with their training and in doing so make such a positive contribution to sport in East Sussex."