24th February 2018
British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards Nominees Announced
The nominees for the British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards (BEDSA) have been announced ahead of the ceremony on Saturday 24th March 2018 in London.
Among those nominated are Kadeena Cox who goes in two categories after her heroics at the World Para Athletics Championships London 2017. Cox – who won Paralympic medals in both athletics and cycling in 2016 – took gold in the T38 400m and sandwiched this with a silver and a bronze medal in the 100m and 200m respectively.
Cox is up for Sportswoman of the Year and Inspirational Performance of the year.
Alongside Cox in the Sportswoman of the year category is Dina Asher-Smith who recovered from injury to win a silver medal at the IAAF World Championships London 2017. The podium moment came after the 4x100m relay team continued their excellent run – Dina racing the third leg. She also placed fourth overall in the 200m; a remarkable turnaround after breaking the navicular bone in her right foot in February, requiring a long spell in crutches.
5-time World Para Athletics medallist Kare Adenegan is up for the young sports person of the year. Not only has the 16-year-old added one silver and two bronze World Para Athletics Championships medals to her ever growing trophy cabinet, but she did this alongside attaining eight A* grades in her GCSEs.
Former high jumper Caan is also nominated in the England Athletics Coach of the Year category for his part in coaching Great Britain and Northern Ireland jumpers Robbie Grabarz and Morgan Lake – Grabarz to European Indoor silver last year, and Lake to her first world outdoor final.
Grabarz remains the defending British outdoor champion for the men’s high jump, a title he has held since 2015, while Lake claimed the British indoor and outdoor title for the women’s for the second consecutive year in 2017.
Alongside him in the same category is Christian Malcolm, who was jointly named Coach of the Year at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards in December.
One of his more notable achievements is coaching T35 100m sprinter Jordan Howe to a silver medal at the World Para Athletics Championships in London last year, helping T37 100m sprinter Rhys Jones to a fourth place finish in the process.
The 38-year-old has also helped fellow Welsh para-athletes James Ledger and Morgan Jones to the Commonwealth Games in Australia later this year, after taking them under his wing in 2015.
Vote for your winners at http://bedsa.co.uk/vote