Grainger named Scottish Sportsperson of the Year

Published on Sunday 15 November 2009 23:04

KATHERINE Grainger MBE, one of the country's most successful Olympians, has been named Scottish Sportsperson of the Year. The first woman to win the title, Grainger was awarded the Emirates Lonsdale Trophy at the Commonwealth Games Scotland Awards Dinner in Glasgow on Saturday.

Having won silver medals in rowing at the last three Olympic Games, Grainger hopes to go one better in the London Games of 2012. She switched from quadruple to single sculls this year, and came second in her new event at the World Championships. She already had four gold medals and one bronze from previous World Championships.

"It is fabulous to win this award and it is the icing on the cake for my first season in the single sculls," Grainger said.

The award was announced by Michael Cavanagh, the chairman of Commonwealth Games Scotland. "It is fantastic to see that in a traditionally quiet year between Olympic and Commonwealth Games there are so many outstanding Scottish performances to choose from, and many congratulations to all our nominees," Kavanagh said.

"However, Katherine's determination to strive for Olympic gold in yet another discipline of her sport, despite having three silver medals in consecutive Olympics, is a credit to her absolute commitment to be the very best."

Tennis player Andy Murray was in second place behind Grainger. The world No4 hopes to round off his season in style with victory in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals at London's O2 Arena later this month.

In third place was gymnast Daniel Keatings. In April Keatings was selected for the Senior European championships in Milan, where he won a silver in the All Around final, Britain's first ever All Around medal in a major championships. He also won bronze on the pommel horse. Judo player Sarah Clark and swimmer Hannah Miley were the other two athletes on the shortlist for the award, for which every Scot competing in a Commonwealth or Olympic Games sport is eligible.

The Lonsdale Trophy was first presented in 2003, and has been won five times by Sir Chris Hoy for his cycling exploits. The only other winner before Grainger was swimmer Gregor Tait, who received the award in 2006 in recognition of his two gold medals at that year's Commonwealth Games.

Grainger added: "I suppose my initial feelings were ones of huge surprise. I didn't expect this, I certainly didn't see it coming. It was nice to beat Chris Hoy and I was holding on to the trophy tightly in case he thinks he has some sort of rights to it having won it so often.

"I am the first woman to win the award and hopefully it gives a bit of a boost to women's sports."