England Hockey picks up four nominations – England Hockey
England Hockey have been nominated across four categories at the prestigious The Women’s Sport Trust #BeAGameChanger Awards.
The awards, now in their second year, are designed to showcase the incredible talent from across women’s sport, and to highlight the need for media, sponsors and the public to invest at all levels. The awards are organised by The Women’s Sport Trust, a charity that raises the visibility and increases the impact of women’s sport through the promotion of role models, increasing media coverage and improving funding.
England Hockey’s nominations come in four different categories: Sponsor Partnership of the Year (Investec and England Hockey), Sporting Role Model – Individual (Kate Richardson-Walsh), Sporting Role Model – Team (England Women’s Hockey) and National Governing Body of the Year (England Hockey).
The Sponsor Partnership of the Year nomination is a real show of recognition that the relationship between England Hockey and Investec has gone from strength to strength. Investec recently announced an extension to the deal until Tokyo 2020. Their support has had a positive effect on women’s hockey in this country from grass roots all the way up to the international team. This nomination is recognition for the hard work on both sides of the partnership.
National Governing Body of the Year (England Hockey).
As a National Governing Body England Hockey has shown commitment to driving the profile of women’s sport and growing participation of females taking part. Following the bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games (the only team sport that medalled), EH has used the profile and their Olympic medal winning role models to drive an engagement programme that has seen an increase of 65% of under 16s playing.
England Hockey’s decision making has also focused on maximising the opportunity to profile the women’s game. When hosting the European Men’s and Women’s Championships together in 2015 the women’s finals were placed in the most prestigious time slot as the last fixture (one that is traditionally given to the men) and as a result of the BBC2 broadcast saw a TV audience of 1.5m.
Encouraging women back to playing hockey with a highly successful Back to Hockey progamme (approximately 12,000 since its inception) England Hockey now has the support of 300 clubs around the country running back to hockey sessions and as a result has developed a thriving club network.
Sporting Role Model – Team (England Women’s Hockey)
The England Women’s Team swept to glory in the European Championships in the summer of 2015, winning the gold medal in front of a packed home crowd at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre. With the bulk of the squad making up the unbeaten Great Britain team who secured Olympic qualification just a few months before Danny Kerry’s team were in unstoppable form.
Sporting Role Model – Individual (Kate Richardson-Walsh)
Kate Richardson-Walsh continues to astound and impress in equal measure. The captain recently became her country’s most capped female player of all time and hopes to compete in her fourth Olympics in Rio. Richardson-Walsh, who was awarded an MBE in 2015 has inspired generations of players and more than done her bit for women’s sport.
There’s unstoppable momentum behind the development of women’s sport. England Hockey is proud to have a role to play in continuing to develop this even further. Through a commitment to maximising the positive financial impact of this progress, the Women’s Sport Trust is working with investors and sporting groups to accelerate change.
For the 2015 #BeAGameChanger awards, over 25,000 public votes were received across eight categories, with 16 finalists from almost 150 nominations. Within the media, athlete, business and political communities, the event helped drive growth in awareness, funding and equality in women’s sport.
The event was oversubscribed, reached an audience of 11 million people in the pre-event activity and close to 103 million post the event. Footage from the evening was used by the BBC and Sky Sports in the celebration of Women’s Sport Week. BT Sport described the #BeAGameChangerAwards as making a “compelling case for future investment, encouraging increased media coverage and bringing together the decision makers who can help make this happen.”
The winners will be announced at the Women’s Sport Trust #BeAGameChanger Awards in Central London May 12 2016.
For full details on the nominees visit the Women’s Sport Trust website here.
