SportsBall 2010

Harry Martin

The winner of the 2010 One-to-Watch Award, Harry Martin, made his senior international debut on 14 July 2010 against Japan and went on to compete for England at the Commonwealth Games in India later in the year, where he was by far the youngest member of the team.

Aged just 18 at the time, he played in the bronze medal match that England eventually lost 5-3 on penalty strokes to New Zealand, having drawn the game 3-3.

After winning SportsAid’s One-to-Watch Award at the SportsBall 2010, the following year Harry went on to win the Hockey Writers’ Youth Award at the Annual Hockey Writers’ Awards in February 2011.

Jodie Williams

The winner of the 2009 One-to-Watch Award, Jodie Williams, was 16 at the time. That year she won the gold medal in the 100m at the Junior Athletics World Championships in Canada and was, at that point, still unbeaten in all 148 races of her career.

In Canada, she said: “My winning streak has given me great confidence. Coming here and getting a medal is brilliant. This is another step up for me. The next step is the world seniors so this is a stepping stone but it means a lot, it’s a great achievement.”

Jodie was supported by SportsAid from 2007 to 2009 and has consistently shown that she has what it takes to get to the very top of her sport. After winning the 100m in Canada, she also took silver in the 200m in 23.19 seconds, finally conceding her winning streak to American athlete Stormy Kendrick, who ran a 22.99 personal best.

Joshua Robert Butler

• Sport: Rowing
• Age: 20

Hours trained per week:

24 hours

Sporting Hero:

Zac Purchase, the 2008 Olympic Gold medallist for the lightweight double sculls.

A Major Sporting Achievement:

Winning Gold in the spears at the 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

Sporting Goal:

To win the under 23 World Championships and win an Olympic Gold medal.

Ashley Bryant

• Sport: Decathlon
• Age: 18

Hours trained per week:

30 hours in winter training. 20-25 in the summer during competitions

Sporting Hero:

Jan Zelezy, 3 times Olympic Champion who holds 5 World Records for javelin throwing

A Major Sporting Achievement:

10th at the under 20s European Junior Championships at 18 – ranked 5th in the world for Ashley’s age

Sporting Goal:

To compete for the top positions at the Olympic Games

Vicky Silk

• Sport: Athletics - throwing events
• Age: 17

Hours trained per week:

7.5 hours

Sporting Hero:

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson

A Major Sporting Achievement:

Winning two Gold medals in Switzerland at the World Junior Championships for Shot and Discuss

Sporting Goal:

Vicky is working hard to be part of the future Paralympics Games

George Lee

• Sport: Taekwondo
• Age: 14

Began training:

Aged 4 years

Hours trained per week:

15 hours

A Major Sporting Achievement:

Adidas Children’s International Gold Medal

Sporting Goal:

Olympic and World Championship medals. In the short term, represent GB in the Junior World Championships

Rebecca Thomas

• Sport: Fencing
• Age: 17

Hours trained per week:

15 hours, 5x3 hours

Competitions in 2009:

9 competitions throughout UK, France and Italy in last 12 months

Sporting Hero:

Her brother, 19-year-old fencer and commonwealth competitor

A Major Sporting Achievement:

Ranking 5th in 2009 Commonwealth games

Hollie Arnold

• Sport: Disability athletics - throws
• Age: 14
• Region: Lincolnshire

At just 14 years of age and born without her right hand or forearm, Hollie represented Great Britain in javelin at the Paralympics Games in Beijing after meeting the qualifying standard of 28 metres for the International Paralympics Committee (IPC) six times. At the competition she managed to throw her personal best despite carrying an injury to her shoulder which she picked up at the training camp in Macau. She is also Junior World Champion in javelin, shot and discus and was a stand-out winner of the 2008 SportsAid One to Watch Award, which she received from Steve Backley.

Peter Bakare

• Sport: Volleyball
• Age: 18
• Region: London

What do you do in terms of sport/training each week?

"Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays: 8-9am Court session, 9-11am Gym, 4-6pm Court session. Tuesday, Thursday: 8-10am Court session, 10-11am Metabolic, 4-6pm Court session."

What is the best part of being a sportsman?

"The rest you get after a training session, you don’t appreciate pleasure until you go through that pain."

What has been your greatest sporting challenge?

"It would have to be getting picked for the final 12 to go to Denmark for the Europeans. There were many players in my positions so I had to work hard to get in the team."

Abbie Taylor

• Sport: BMX
• Age: 14
• Region: Yorkshire & Humberside

Sir Matthew Pinsent presented Abbie with the Taut 100 Young Sportsperson Award at the 2008 SportsBall. Abbie is the biggest British talent in BMX since Shanaze Reade and was World Champion at the age of 12. Since then, she’s been dominating the World, European and National scenes.

She trains with boys two years older than her to increase the difficulty and it is paying off. Her incredible leg speed and tactical approach to the competition makes her an “outstanding, unequalled talent in her age group” – Gary Coltman, Youth Programme Director.

Victoria Ohuruogu

• Sport: Sprint
• Age: 15
• Region: London

What does it feel like to be a SportsAid athlete?

"Being a SportsAid athlete has been a big, big help. It also feels like a sort of honour, to know that someone has that much confidence, and believes in you that they are willing to invest time and money in order to make me a better athlete. It has helped me to develop to be a better athlete, because it has made things like travel and the cost for little things much easier because I don’t keep on bugging my parents for that money."

Toby Mumford

• Sport: Rowing
• Age: 17
• Region: London

Toby is a technique based rower but at 6 feet 4 inches he has the power and range to succeed within rowing. The Kingston Grammar School student trains for fourteen hours over six days of the week.

In July 2008 Toby performed well at the World Junior Rowing Championships in Linz. He came back with a Silver medal having rowed in the Coxed 4 in the Under 18’s. He was mentioned in the Daily Telegraph sports section for his achievements. Toby used his recent SportsAid grant to get to Linz for the race.

At the Munich International Regatta he managed to win a Silver in the four boat and a Bronze in the eight (the last time a GB eight won a medal was 8 years ago).

Jonathan May

• Sport: Fencing
• Age: 16
• Region: London

Jonathan has recently returned from Sydney where he was competing at the Youth Olympic Festival with the GB team. He and his fellow fencers managed to win Team Gold. It was organised through the British Olympic Association so Jonathan got a taste of what it is like to be a member of team GB at a major competition.

By his own admission he didn't fence to his own high standards and lost 15-14 in an early stage of the competition, but Britain still took the gold as his team mate Ben White won. In the team event they all fenced very well and took the Gold medal beating Malaysia in the semi final and Australia in the final.

Jonathan started fencing at school at age eleven and after three years he began to enter competitions. Just two competitions into his sporting career he was ranked as U17 No 1.

Andrew Brown

• Sport: Sailing
• Age: 15
• Region: North West

Andrew won the 2007 SportsAid One to Watch Award, chosen by a select panel of sports journalists from a shortlist of the country’s finest young sportspeople. Andrew was presented with the award by sailing legend, Ben Ainslie and is determined to follow his lead and represent Great Britain at the Olympics.

Anthony Ogogo

• Sport: Boxing
• Age: 18
• Region: South East

Anthony won the Junior Olympics in 2004 and on 3 January 2008 he entered the Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack house, finishing three and a half weeks later in fourth place. Since then he has captained Great Britain's Team in the World European and Junior Olympic Tournaments and has his sights set firmly on 2012.

Tom Daley

• Sport: Diving
• Age: 12
• Region: South West

Sir Matthew Pinsent presented Tom with the Taut 100 Young Sportsperson Award at the 2006 SportsBall. At the time he was just 12 years old but went on to be a household name. At the age of 14 years and 81 days he famously dived off the 10m platform into the pool at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, making him the youngest British Olympian since 1960.