The Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards
Photo: Bill Dale
By costelloracing.com
November 18 2005
Maria Costello: “Last night was an amazing evening. I was attending the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards, at the beautiful London’s Old Billingsgate Market venue.
“It was fantastic to see so many of the country’s sportswomen all in one place, including Claire Connor and the GB women’s quadruple sculls team - including a friend of mine Francis Houghton - and we were all in the presence of royalty, the horsewoman Zara Philips who was up for the main award of the night.
“Gill McConway, the ECB’s Executive Director for Women’s Cricket, had invited me to join her on the ECB table and, after working with the Northamptonshire County Cricket Club physio last year, and becoming a real follower of the sport, I was delighted to join them - and I was sat next to former player Wasim Khan (my Dad’s going to be so jealous). The GB women’s cricket team had been nominated for the Team of the Year award, but I won’t spoil the suspense - you can either watch the awards on Sky Sports tonight, or you’ll have to wait until Sunday for the next issue of the Sunday Times!
“Once the final award was presented, a party atmosphere ensued - kicked off by former X factor contenders G4 - and I got the chance to rub shoulders with (prepare for some name dropping) many of the 2012 Olympic bid team, including Lord Coe himself, many sports personalities and presenters including James Cracknell, Jeremy Guscott, Claire Gallagher and Jill Douglas.
“Helen Gorman and Mel Berry from the Perfect Motion Sports Marketing team, for whom I’m an ‘active’ advocate for the East Midlands Sporting Advocate Project, and Alex Russell from the Women’s Sports Foundation (who do a great job of trying to bring equality into sport for women and girls) got some great photographs of us with some of the above, so I hope to put them on my website soon.
“The only thing that was missing from this fantastic evening was my nomination. Next year, with even more success and achievements under my belt, combined with my new and existing connections with many of the sports groups and marketing companies, I hope to raise the profile of my sport - and who knows maybe even get a nomination at the 2006 Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards.”
Sponsors for 2005: BERING, Metzeler, Logo Plus, Rock Oil, RLR Motorsports, Arata Exhausts (Faster By Design), Arai, Goodridge UK, NGK Spark Plugs, EBC, Abbastands, WP Suspension, Daytona Boots, Resolution TV, The Image Works, Dynojet, David Sutton Personal Trainer, Fitness First Health Clubs, Christophe Becquereau Osteopath, Specialized, Skidmarx, Dread Clothing, WSF, Sport England, Sparkes Management Support, EDZ, Rampsdirect, EXCEL, Scorpion stands, eBike Insurance, Kall Kwik Northampton, Sauls of Spratton Ltd, GRP Steering Dampers, Sato Race Products and X Bikes.