Warrington Sports Personality of 2002 - Junior winners (From Warrington Guardian)

Warrington Sports Personality of 2002 - Junior winners

9:56am Tuesday 19th September 2006 in Sport By Mike Parsons

THE town's gymnastics community will be pleased to know that two of their rising stars have been given the thumbs up by Warrington Sports Personality's judging panel.

From the flood of nominations, which were revealed in last week's Guardian, artistic gymnasts Helen Galashan and Zoe Allen have been voted as the champions of Warrington at junior level.

Helen is the Under 16s Warrington Sports Personality for 2002 while Zoe is the u13s winner.

They will be invited to Warrington Town Hall on January 24 for the presentation of prizes and awards.

Warrington Service Area under 14s Rugby League team and Warrington Athletics Club's under 13s boys team will also receive invitations after winning the u16s and u13s team categories respectively.

Helen was the pride of Scotland in 2002. She became the country's highest placed gymnast in the history of the Commonwealth Games.

The 15-year-old from Culcheth was the top performer in a Scottish team which finished sixth.

She trod new ground for the country by finishing eighth in the all round individual competition, fifth in the beam final and eighth in the uneven bars final.

Impressive She also came fourth in the British Junior Championships in Gilford in 2002 and helped Great Britain secure eighth spot in the junior European Championships.

Warrington's Gymnastics Club's Zoe also enjoyed national level success in 2002.

The 12-year-old from Culcheth won the North West Combined Championships and the British Combined Level Two Championships in 2002.

The British u12s squad member also retained her British A bars title and captained the north west to national team gold medal glory for the second successive year.

Warrington Service Area u14s' year was equally impressive.

They were undefeated throughout the season and humbled teams from strongbed junior Rugby League towns such as Wigan and St. Helens.

The majority of the team members are part of the Warrington Wolves Scholarship and 13 of them attended regional camps of which five made it on to the national camp.

The highlights of Warrington Athletics Club's u13s boys team's year at u11s level were winning the Cheshire Cross Country Championships, the Cheshire Cross Country League, the Cheshire Track Relays 100m title and retaining the Priory Woods Relays cross country title.

When the team stepped up to u13s level, the boys triumphed in the Uttoxeter Open, North Staffordshire Cross Country League, Sale Harriers' Over the Bales Race and finished as runner-up in the North of England Road Relays event.