Young Sports Personality of the Year Award

Award Sponsor

The Young Sports Personality of the Year will be chosen from our 12 monthly winners

Sorcha Mullan (Athletics)

At the start of this year Sorcha helped Northern Ireland to a third placed finish at the Celtic Under-17 Girls’ Home International Cross-Country event; she claimed a bronze medal in the Girls’ Under-17 1,500 metres at the NI and Ulster Indoor Age Group C’ships and helped Omagh Harriers ladies team win the Intermediate title at the NI and Ulster Cross-Country Championships where she finished an amazing fifth place overall against competitors, some of whom were at least twice her age. Sorcha also earned a place on the NI and Ulster Mountain Running team at the World Under-18 Cup in Italy.

Lauren Armstrong (Hockey)

The Omagh Academy student has a burning ambition to one day follow in the footsteps of a certain Shirley McCay who has enjoyed a sparkling international career. For Lauren that’s quite a tall order but so far so good for the captain of the school’s 1st XI. In May she captained Ireland U17s in a four-team tournament in Mannheim Germany and upon her return the gifted midfielder played for Ulster U18s against Wales in a three-match series at Lilleshall, England. Lauren, who currently plays top flight hockey with Dungannon Ladies, had previously helped Omagh Ladies to win the Senior League One Cup for the first time in the club’s history and more recently helped Ulster U18s to inter-provincial glory and Omagh Academy to the semi-finals of the Schools Cup.

Niamh McEvoy (Showjumping)

Niamh helped Ireland to a European title before winning a National Championship crown just a week later. The Loreto Grammar School was a member of the GAIN Irish U16 (Pony) Show Jumping team who earned a sensational gold medal success at the 2019 European Championships at Strzegom in Poland. She was back in action the following weekend in Mullingar at the National Championships, where she regained her crown by beating her Ireland teammate John McEntee. She went on to ride alongside McEntee for Ireland at the Longines Masters of Paris and was 5th at the Tanzan Grand Prix.

Jude Gallagher (Boxing)

Just over a month after turning 18, the Newtownstewart man was crowned Irish Senior Elite 52kg champion. He defeated reigning Irish Intermediate champion, Sean Kavanagh, 5-0, in the last eight, before recording a similar triumph over reigning champion, Adam Hession to set up a final clash with last year’s 49kg title holder, Regain Buckley, who he also defeated 5-0. He also won his final Irish underage title in the summer, fought at the European Youth Championships and was selected to represent Ireland at a Multi-Nations in Bulgaria before illness ruled him out.

Save