Cash for young sports stars

They shared a total of £1,800 from the foundation set up by the Shuttle/Times & News in memory of the former Kidderminster Harriers secretary and Liberal Democrat councillor on his death in 1995.

Since then more than £22,000 has been distributed to approximately 80 young sportspeople covering 25 different sports.

The recipients this year came from skiing, judo, special olympics, fencing, gymnastics, athletics, karate and cricket.

The grants were presented at the Wyre Forest District Sports Council Awards held at the Glades Arena in kidderminster.

Grants are made every January and applications are invited by the Shuttle/Times & News about six weeks before the presentation evening.

KATE WALKER TEENAGE judo star Kate Walker, 17, is probably the best prospect Wyre Forest has of having a representative at the London Olympics in 2012.

Chief coach at her club, Kidderminster-based Samurai Judo Club, Andrew Haffner said: "Kate is a fantastic role model for players in the sport and always supports and encourages other players at the club.

"Her goal is the London 2012 Olympics and she is becoming more and more likely to achieve that as time goes on."

She has received financial support from the Ray Mercer foundation for several years and has maintained her progress since being spotted as a rare talent.

Her list of achievements in 2006 are too many to mention, but it is not now about winning medals - it is about impressing the British selectors.

Highlights from the past year included World Cup selection for Great Britain, winning a place in the European Junior Championships in Estonia where she was the highest placed British player, and her selection for the Senior European Championships where she also acquitted herself very well.

ASHLEY BREESE ASHLEY Breese from Stourport started skiing at the age of four and became a racer at six.

He trains twice a week at Telford dry ski slope and once a month at an indoor snow dome and this winter will be racing in Austria and France.

His aim is to compete with the Home Nations Ski Team and his longer term goal is to gain a podium place in the Winter Olympics and World Cup.

His father is a former member of the British Alpine Ski Team and recognised his talent at an early age.

Ashley, who was 11 last week, has picked up an amazing array of titles.

He was the British Alpine champion for his age group in 2005 and 2006, British indoor champion 2005, Welsh champion and Welsh open champion 2005, 2006, and also recorded a host of other victories in national dry slope races in 2006.

SOPHIE LANE SOPHIE LANE, 13, from Kidderminster, has been a member of the Worcestershire Special Olympics gymnastics team for several years.

She competes on all pieces of apparatus and has won numerous gold, silver and bronze medals in competitions, participating at regional and national level.

She won five gold medals at the Jersey Games in November and won the all-rounder competition at the National Special Olympics Competition last April.

The Wolverley High School student took part in the British Games in Glasgow last year and is now preparing for her trip of a lifetime later this year, having qualified for the World Games in China.

GRANT TAYLOR GRANT Taylor, who competes for Kidderminster and Stourport Athletic Club, is a good prospect for the pentathlon.

He was an outstanding performer in 2006 and was named the club's top under-15 boy.

The pupil at Lacon Childe High School, Cleobury, achieved 13.8secs for the 100m, 4.95m for the long jump, and just over 21m for the javelin and was a member of the Kidderminster/Stourport team that won the National Young Athletes League and Heart of England League.

This year he hopes to represent the county in the English Schools regional competition and the national finals.

HEIDI JAROSINSKI HEIDI Jarosinski is the Worcestershire county champion at javelin and long jump and is Midlands county champion for the indoor pentathlon and long jump.

The 19-year-old from Kidderminster also won the javelin event at the Midland County Championships.

Another highlight of 2006 was her performance at the UK Challenge Jumps Festival where she was fourth in the long jump and fifth in the triple jump.

She is ranked in the top five in the West Midlands for long jump, pentathlon and triple jump, and is also ranked in the shot put, javelin, 100m, 200m and 100m hurdles.

Her progress in 2006 an be measured by the fact that she set personal bests in six different disciplines during the year.

She has been selected for West Midlands development squads and regional coaching schemes and hopes to represent GB at the Commonwealth and Olympic Games in the not-too-distant future.

ADAM ZIUBRZYNSKI ADAM Ziubrzynski, who is 15, took up the shukokai form of karate at the age of six and has been an undoubted success. He is now reached the level of First Dan Black Belt.

He received an award from the Ray Mercer foundation in 2004 to help him get to the World Championships in South Africa with the Great Britain squad and came home with gold and bronze medals.

He has made excellent progress in 2006. He won numerous medals at club level and was named most improved student of the year by his club, Dudley Shukokai Club.

He has now been selected to train with the national squad with a view to representing England in future competitions.

NEIL PINNER NEIL Pinner is an outstanding young cricketer and represented England U15s, Midlands U15s, Worcestershire U15s and U17s and made his debut for the Kidderminster Victoria first team in 2006.

The 16-year-old from Hartlebury is a member of Worcestershire County Cricket Club's academy and his ambition is to become a professional.

Damien D'Oliveira, the academy director, said: "Neil always plays and practises with a smile on his face" and Worcestershire have high hopes for him in the future.

CHARLOTTE BERRINGTON CHARLOTTE Berrington, of Kidderminster, has been Worcestershire champion in both high jump and javelin for the last three years.

The 16-year-old is also a member of the highly successful Kidderminster and Stourport Athletic Club team which won the Heart of England and National Young Athletes Leagues.

She increased her personal best in the javelin by two metres during the year and also equalled her high jump best when competing in an inter-county match at Oxford.

She has now been invited to train with the UK Athletics regional high jump development group every week and has also been asked to attend specialist high jump training with a view to increasing her strength.

She is another Wyre Forest competitor who has an eye on the 2012 Olympics.

BEN DAVIS AND AMBER NEWTON TWO young fencers from Wyre Forest received support from the Ray Mercer Sporting Foundation to help them maintain their progress in the sport.

Ben Davis from Kidderminster is 10 and took up the sport two years ago. In 2006 he finished third in the foil in a Birmingham Schools competition and was fifth in the same discipline in a West Midlands regional competition which qualified him for the Junior National Finals.

His coach at Droitwich Fencing Club commends his enthusiasm and hard work on improving his technique and overall game.

Amber Newton from Churchill received a Ray Mercer grant to enable her to buy specialist equipment last January and has made great strides since then.

She was a member of the winning team at the Birmingham Schools under-14 event even though she is only nine. In individual events she was always in the top three.

At a competition in Leicester she won a nine-and-under competition and at Cambridge she was third out of 18 which included fencers from France. She has now progressed to be ranked third in Great Britain in her age group and hopes to improve on that in 2007.

HANNAH WILSON ELEVEN-year-old gymnast Hannah Wilson is a member of the West Midlands regional development squad which develops elite gymnasts from all over the region.

She trains at Baxter College with the local club five times a week.

Hannah, who attends St John's Middle School in Kidderminster, took up gymnastics at the age of five and was quickly talent-spotted.

By the age of seven she competed in the West Midlands recreational floor and vault competition against more than 70 gymnasts and took the gold medal.

The following year took silver in her first four-piece competition at West Midlands Level Five.

In 2006 she won a string of competitions to secure her place in the West Midlands team that went to the nationals where she just missed a bronze medal by 0.5 of a mark.

She is described as highly competitive, self-motivated and keen to reach the highest levels.