Best Of The Best: Top Athletes Honoured At UK Armed Forces Sports Awards

The UK Armed Forces Sports Board has presented its annual awards, recognising another 12 months of sporting excellence across the British Armed Forces.

Last year will go down as a superb one for military sport, reflected in how difficult the choices were in naming the winners from a brilliant set of nominees at the RAF Club in London.

One of the sides in the running for the Sports Team of the Year was the Royal Navy squash team, which won a first Inter-Services squash championships in over 55 years.

It was the players' first team victory at the event for 55 years, following a carefully constructed five-year plan.

Also up there was the RAF Women's Alpine Ski Team. Led by their captain Flight Lieutenant Claire Nixon, their highlight was winning their event at the 2017 Inter-Services Snow Sports Championships in Meribel.

Taking home the prize, however, was the Army Women's Swimming Team, which crowned two decades of success in the pool with a 20th successive forces title.

They also scooped 28 medals at the World Masters Games in New Zealand, 11 of which were gold.

In the running for Sportswoman of the Year was the Navy's highly-talented former Welsh junior international swimmer Samantha Eagle, who has won 15 Inter-Services titles in the past eight years.

Also nominated was the RAF's pocket rocket rugby forward Amy Cokayne, who keeps scoring tries for England from the hooker's position.

But the winner was Army and Storey Racing cycling star Ejay Harris, who beat cancer to continue and enhance her amazing cycling career in 2017, including becoming the first Army cyclist to win a National Road Series race.

The Sportsman of the Year nominees were also of an incredible standard. Choosing between the Army and Navy's nominees was difficult enough.

One of them was Peter Moreno, the Nigerian national record holder in pole vault and decathlon, who dominated the Inter-Services championships.

He's currently in Nigeria training with the country's Commonwealth Games team, so couldn't attend the awards.

He was joined by the Navy's most talented boxing prospect in years, Royal Marine George Crotty, who has lit up recent Inter-Services battles with the Army.

He's now training with the British national team, with a view to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

But the man chosen for the award was the RAF's outstanding hockey star, Liam Sanford.

Liam's been on the GB full-time elite programme since December 2016 and is in the England squad for the upcoming Commonwealth Games on Australia's Gold Coast.

Up for Official of the Year was the RAF's Group Captain Anne-Marie Houghton, for her unstinting contribution to both Alpine winter sports and swimming over a number of years.

The Navy's rugby league coach head Steve Lockton, meanwhile, helped transform the 'band of brothers' into a side that claimed three Inter-Services titles in four years.

But former Army boxing head coach Staff Sergeant Jason Browring, who's been involved with the sport for more than two decades, took the top prize.

These awards are special, but all the nominees here are winners in their own right

For those selected, however, it's the ultimate honour in forces sport.

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