Athlete's delight at Dacorum Sports award

Philly is currently ranked in the top 10 in the UK for 400m, with her personal best time of 53.61 achieved at the British Championships in Sheffield in February. In 2015, she finished second in the BUCS (British University) Championships in 400m hurdles with a time of 59.66, and qualified to compete in British Championships where she finished a brilliant sixth in 59.98s.

Winning the Dacorum Sports Person of the Year award capped off a stellar weekend for Philly, who was selected to race for England for the first time this weekend at the Loughborough International in the 4x400m race, where England finished in First place, with Philly running her leg in a blistering split time of 53.7

Philly also competed in Loughborough in the 400m hurdles ‘guest’ race which she won in a fabulous new PB of 58.03s. Her coach, Deb Keenleyside, noted that Philly’s time was 1.5 seconds faster than the winning time in the international 400m hurdles race, contested by runners form England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Deb said that Philly has been: “doing weights seriously this year and that has made a major difference to her strength. There’s more to come - she will definitely knock another second off her time this year.”

Philly, in her first year as a PE teacher at Hemel Hempstead school, has won numerous district, county and regional championship titles over the years at 400m, 400m hurdles and other events and is one of the most talented athletes to have gone through the ranks of Dacorum & Tring AC.

Dacorum & Tring also had a good showing in other categories at the awards: Mitchell Camp was runner up in the Contribution to Disability Sport award and Mike Dunphy, head coach of the club’s talented Middle Distance squad, was runner up in the Lifetime Achievement Award category.

Mitchell trains with Gavin Town’s sprint squad at D&T’s Jarman Park track, and last year won a full set of medals - gold (long jump), silver (100m) and bronze (4x100m) - and the 2015 Special Olympics in Los Angeles.

Mike, for his part, was recognised for his contribution to middle distance running in Dacorum. A national level coach who coached GB athlete Hannah Walker, a former BUCS 5,00m and cross country champion, Mike now leads a talented squad of young runners, including many district and county champions in cross country and track distances from 400m to 5000m.

The awards were part of a long string of recognition for the club, Dacorum’s only combined athletics and road running club, which won the coveted Club of the Year award at both the 2015 Hertfordshire Sports Awards and the Dacorum Sports Awards.