Congratulations to golfer and Asda Athlete Lauren Taylor who has been crowned BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

Lauren is partnered with our Rugby store – and became the youngest winner of the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship earlier this year at the age of 16.

She’s pictured above receiving her award from track and field athlete Jessica Ennis and Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini.

Golfer Ian Poulter said of Lauren: “She is not only a great golfer but an extremely well-rounded young woman.”

Congratulations to Lauren from everyone at Asda – we’re looking forward to watching you go on to even greater achievements in the future!

Three of the top 10 nominees for BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year had been supported by the Asda Athletes programme. The others were tennis player Liam Brody and cyclist Lucy Garner.

23 December 2011, 15:19

Congratulations to Liam Broady, Lucy Garner and Lauren Taylor – who have all been supported by our Asda Athletes programme – on being shortlisted for this year’s prestigious BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.

Tennis player Liam, who reached both the final of the boys singles at Wimbledon and the semi–finals of the doubles was an Asda Athlete in 2008, as was cyclist Lucy who won gold in the Youth Commonwealth Games despite being involved in a crash earlier this year. Lucy is currently the Junior Road Race World Champion.

Golfer Lauren is currently partnered with our Rugby store. She says: “It is an absolute honour to be recognised in my sport across the whole of the UK and I was so happy and surprised when I found out that I had been shortlisted for the young sports personality award.”

“The highlight of my year was becoming the British Ladies Amateur Champion, where I was also the youngest ever winner. I love representing my country and this recognition is the icing on the cake of what has been a great 2011.”

We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for Liam, Lucy and Lauren when the BBC’s award ceremony takes place on Thursday 22nd December.

05 December 2011, 13:47

Congratulations to Matthew, Charlotte, Sarah and Jenna who have been chosen as this year’s Athletes of the Year!

Our four athletes were chosen based on the work that they did in conjunction with their partnered stores and local communities – and their efforts to support activities in their area by visiting local schools, clubs and groups.

The competition was extremely tough – so many of our athletes have been hugely successful this year, both in terms of sporting achievement and through the work you’ve carried out in partnership with your local stores.

Our Athletes of the Year have done a fantastic job of engaging with their partnered store and the wider Asda Athletes programme – a big well done to all of them! They will each receive a £300 Asda giftcard that they will be able to spend either in-store or online.

Read more about what they’ve been doing over the year in their blogs.

England

Matthew Wylie
Swimming
Asda South Shields

Scotland

Charlotte Guest
Alpine Skiing
Asda Perth

Wales

Sarah Crowley
Cycling
Asda Cwmbran

Northern Ireland

Jenna Holmes
Hockey
Asda Larne

20 October 2011, 17:17

Congratulations to Molly Bartrip – partnered with Asda Romford – who is our Asda Athlete of the Month for September.

Molly is a frequent blogger and keeps us updated regularly on her progress. Her latest blog posts revealed she has been selected to captain Arsenal U17 squad in the 2011-2012 season and is representing England at the UEFA qualifiers! Well done, Molly.

Molly visited her local store recently to help raise funds for her training and competition costs. She packed bags for our customers, organised a fundraising raffle and set up a penalty shoot-out in store which certainly caught the attention of customers and colleagues.

If you would like to be the Athlete of the Month for October, make sure you keep us to date with what you are up to via your Asda Athletes blog.

07 October 2011, 13:34

The Commonwealth Youth Games took place on the Isle of Man between the 7th and 13th September and no less than six of our Asda Athletes came home with medals after putting in star performances.

Our aspiring Olympians of tomorrow saw success in athletics, where Yasmin Miller took gold in the 100m hurdles and gold in the 4×100m relay along with Hayley Mclean who took gold with Yasmin in the 4×100m relay and silver in the 400m hurdles. In gymnastics, Asda Rayleigh’s athlete Brinn Bevan took silver in the parallel bars and swept gold with his team in the overall event.

Three of Asda’s young athletes from north of the border saw success in the swimming events – Mark Szaranek took silver in the men’s 4×100m medley relay and bronze in the men’s 200m individual medley. Emily Jones also had success when she took three bronze medals away in the in the 100m breaststroke, 400m individual medley and the 4×200m freestyle relay. Charlotte McKenzie took two bronze medals in the 4×200m freestyle relay and the 50m backstroke.

We’re really proud of all our athletes that participated and won medals in the games, so a huge well done to all of you!

15 September 2011, 11:06