ATHLETICS stars Jay Stone and Stuart Geddes spiked the top individual honours at the Armidale Sports Councils annual Sports Awards.
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Stone was named the 2AD Armidale Bowling Club Senior Sports Star of the Year and Geddes the FM 100.3 KG Motors Junior Sports Star of the Year at Thursday night’s presentation.
It follows a year where both won gold at either state or national level in their respective disciplines – Stone sprinting and Geddes steeplechase.
Stone scooped the titles in the 200m and 400m, finishing top of the podium at the NSW Country, NSW and Australian Masters events, and was at one stage ranked number one in the world for these events.
The head coach of the Armidale Athletics Club, he was as well as his achievements on the track also named the 2015 NSW Administrator for Athletics.
One of Stone’s talented young charges, Geddes currently holds the NSW Country, NSW, NSW CHS and NSW All Schools titles for the 2000m steeplechase, and is hoping to add a national title to those in a couple of weeks.
He also competed well in 1500 and 3000m events, and won both the Tamworth Fun Five and Armidale 5km, the latter in record time.
The fact that he cannot train for the steeplechase, with no local track or jumps for him to train with, impressed the judges as did the fact that each time he competes he runs a personal best.
He has also been only doing it for a year.
The 2AD Armidale Bowling Club local Achievement of the Year went to golfer Amanda Carr, while canoeist Kate Allen was named the FM 100.3 KG Motors Junior Regional Sports Star of the Year.
Special guest for the awards was Australian women’s sevens star Tiana Penitani and she also presented special FM 100.3 awards to Bronte Dagg for horse sports and Sahra Dennehy for tennis.
In the teams awards the UNE women’s football team that won the Australian University Games was named the Armidale Sportspower Senior Team of the Year.
NERU champions Armidale Blues were the local team winners, the premiership-winning New England Nomads the regional team and the Armidale athletics squad the state team of the year.
The Junior Team of the Year award went to the Duval High School open boys’ futsal side, with the Ben Venue girls’ hockey side that was crowned joint state champions the state team of the year, the NEGS polocrosse squad the regional team and the TAS First XI football squad the local team.
There were also Armidale Sports Council Newcastle Permanent Service to Sports Awards presented to Lisa and Joe Russell for their over 20 years’ service to swimming, Dennis Behrend for his over 22 years service to hockey, John Miller for over 44 years of service to touch football and Andrew “Cooge” Cross for the over 30 years of service he’s given to rugby league, touch, golf, cricket and swimming.