Mike’s delight at sports recognition
Paralympian among stars to receiveaward
Mike Kerr was delighted to receive recognition for his Rio 2016 Paralympics heroics at the Sunday Mail sportscotland Scottish Sports Awards last week.
The Uddingston man, who competed in Rio with Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby, said he was pleased that Scotland’s Olympians and Paralympians were jointly-awarded the Editor’s Award at the glittering ceremony on Thursday, which honoured the country’s top sports performers.
Those who collected the award included five-a-side football star Jonathan Paterson from Motherwell.
Mike (34) said: “It was quite a shock – I certainly wasn’t expecting it, and it was a nice touch.
“It’s definitely nice to be recognised; Olympians usually get far more recognition than Paralympians, so it was so nice for us to be recognised on the same level.
“We were all together, nobody was singled out, and that’s great. At the end of the day there is no difference between us and them; we put in the same amount of work and effort.
“It was a really good night. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was good to be mixing with other sports stars from across the board. It was nice to be involved.”
Mel Young, Chair of sportscotland, the national agency for sport, said: “The 10th Sunday Mail and sportscotland Scottish Sports Awards recognised the exceptional achievements of 2016 and reinforced the message that there are people right across the country fully committed to the task of building of a world class sporting system for everyone in Scotland.
“The great thing about the Scottish Sports Awards is the way it brings together the household names who dominate media coverage of professional sport in our country and those less heralded individuals who underpin sport in our schools, clubs and community sport hubs.
“I congratulate our exceptional winners and finalists and applaud all of those who were nominated for the various awards for their valuable contribution to Scottish sport.”
It was quite a shock – I certainly wasn’t expecting it, and it was a nice touch