Retiring Strachan wins Sportsperson of the Year Award

Retiring swimmer Andrea Strachan was named Sportsperson of the Year with the island games 4x100m relay team scooping the Team of the Year gong in the biggest ever Shetland Sports Awards last night.

Sportspeople, fans and officials crammed into the Clickimin Bowls Hall for the celebration which also included an emotional moment as Mary Jamieson went to the stage to collect the Lifetime Endeavour Award on behalf of her late husband Harry.

Almost 270 people were in attendance and there was a standing ovation as Strachan walked up to collect her award from International Island Games Association chairman Jorgen Pettersson. Afterwards Strachan said it had been a wonderful moment.

“It’s so good, it is one of the reasons I loved doing the sport so much – the support you get from the Shetland community is unreal.

“I am so happy to end it [swimming career] with this award and the standing ovation. I find it all overwhelming.”

Runners-up on the night were strongman Dhanni Moar, who also was given a huge cheer by the audience and prolific Spurs striker Paul Molloy, who could not be in attendance.

Moar provided one of the lighter moments of the night – giving compere Tavish Scott a bone-crushing bear hug before collecting his certificate.

There was a strong list of contenders in the Young Sportsperson of the Year category with athletes Lucy Holden and Sophie Moar ultimately missing out to archer Karen Lobban.

She is Scottish champion, Northern Area Champion and Shetland Champion for the under 16s age group. And she could add to her titles with the British Championships before Christmas.

Reflecting on her award, Lobban said she was still coming to terms with having won, but it was “amazing”. She said the highlight of her year had been going away with the Shetland Junior Archery Team. “They are so amazing and such good friends and they are very supportive as well.”

There had been cheers earlier in the night as the NatWest Island Games 4x100m relay team were named Team of the Year.

Kristi Grant, Faye Cox, Tamar Moncrieff and Sophie Moar had the chance to relive the golden moment from Jersey and Moar recalled collecting the baton for the final leg.

“We were second going into it [the final leg] and I could see the Orkney lass and I thought, ‘there’s no way she’s getting it’.” Such are the margins in the event Shetland finished first 0.9 of a second in front of Orkney’s team which just missed out on the medals.

The Young Team of the Year award went to the Shetland Under 12s Football team which had gone through the season undefeated, including winning the multinational Loch Lomond Soccer Festival.

Other presentation on the night were made to Coach of the Year, Julie Grant; Technical Official, Lesley Hutchison; Volunteer, Ian Manning and Young Volunteer Alina Murray. There will be full coverage of the awards in next week’s Shetland Times.