Young local sporting talent has once again been recognised by the Caterham Rotary Club. The annual Rotary Sporting Excellence Award ceremony was held recently at the Surrey National Golf Club. Outright winner was 15-year-old Sam Talbot a pupil at Caterham School. He received a certificate and a cheque for £250 from Caterham Rotary President Claude Bertin and is using the money to purchase a new pair of specialist sprint spikes, which will have been in action for the first time last weekend in a national decathlon competition.

Sam impressed the three judges with his outstanding sporting achievements, which include rugby- having been a member of the England Lambs team for the last 2 years, he is a member of the Exeter Chiefs U16’s elite development squad, and the Surrey County Rugby team. Sam has also excelled in the field of athletics having represented England Schools at international level and has a whole host of UK awards including Pentathlon, Long jump and hurdles. He also managed to fit in cricket last year as a wicket keeper and batsman for Devon.

The runners up were Isabella Berlin a 12 year old pupil from Caterham School and 14 year old Holly Castle from Woldingham Girls School who were presented with certificates and cheques for £125.

Isabella’s award recognised her outstanding performance in the swimming pool where she trains twice a day in the 50M pool at the K2 Crawley including getting up at 4.30am every morning! She is now ranked 2nd in the UK for the breast stroke for her age group and has been selected for the England talent Squad.

Holly’s sporting excellence is in the fields of hockey, netball and athletics where she is a member of the Surrey County U15 (a year above her age) hockey squad and is involved in trials for the County netball team as well as representing East Surrey at the Surrey Schools Athletics Championships.

Chairman of the judges Rotarian Geraint Jenkins said: “ The standard of the applicants this year was extremely high and it was a difficult task to short list and then select a winner. Our congratulations go to all three and we wish them well in their future sporting achievements.”

Nominations for the 2015 awards will open in January 2015 and details circulated to all local secondary schools and youth and sporting clubs.