Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Adelphi Special Risks Limited
With a mere two weeks to go until the Birmingham Sports Awards, tension is mounting among the nominees and public alike.
On September 11 we will announce a shortlist of three finalists for each of the thirteen award categories, at which point there will be just seven days remaining before our finalists, sponsors and guests descend on Aston Villa Football Club to see who takes the accolades.
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The award ceremony itself is set to be a lavish affair with a champagne reception for all our guests kicking off a night that includes a sumptuous three course meal, great entertainment and fundraising activities that will benefit two wonderfully deserving local charities, Cure Leukaemia and The Stephen Staunton Foundation.
Some of the West Midlands’ most prominent and successful sporting personalities will be in attendance and their presence, along with that of all the shortlisted finalists, is sure to create a real buzz on the night.
The Birmingham Sports Awards would, of course not be possible without the help of its sponsors and in recent weeks we have been speaking to the organisations who have chosen to support an award category.
This week Damon Blakey, Managing Director of , told us about their decision to get involved and get behind the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Damon told us: “Sport has had a huge influence in the lives of myself and my fellow directors, not least Neil Fletcher and Neil Back MBE, who both had very successful professional rugby careers.
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“Without the support and encouragement of others success in both sport and business would be near impossible. These awards allow us the opportunity to show our support and encouragement for others and give something back to a sporting community that served us so well.
“We see the Lifetime Achievement Award as important in highlighting to the sportspeople of the West Midlands that their continued hard work and commitment is recognised and celebrated.
“Individual medals and titles mark success at particular moments in time but this award recognises a continued lifelong commitment to excellence and effort.
“This is something we feel is extremely important and shows that the endeavours of these sportspeople are remembered well beyond a medal ceremony and live in the memories of those who have enjoyed following them.”
Damon thinks that with all the modern distractions kids often need encouraging to take up sport. He explained, “We live in a world in which the demands and influences on our children’s time have eroded the attraction of playing sport.
“This is a worrying development and it is important we reverse it as there are obvious health benefits to sport.
“But it is the social and personal skills that sports develop that are key.
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“Awards such as these not only celebrate elite sporting success but sporting endeavour in general. Hopefully they act as a beacon of encouragement to the young people of Birmingham to actively participate in sport.”
For Damon, the skills that sport helps to develop benefit those youngsters as they move into the working environment.
“The comparisons between sport and business are endless.
“Hard work, commitment, attention to detail and a desire to go that extra mile are but a few of the traits important for success both in sport and business.
“Both require discipline, drive, communication skills and an ability to work within a team. If art imitates life, business definitely imitates sport and vice versa.”