The region's most inspirational athletes were praised at last night's Cumbria Sports Awards held at the Low Wood Bay Resort Hotel at Windermere.

Organised by Active Cumbria, the awards recognise the outstanding sporting talents, commitment and successes of teams and individuals throughout Cumbria.

Among the winners was Curtis Anderson, from Ulverston, who was named Junior Sports Personality of the Year. After an exceptional season in the youth ranks with club side Manchester City, the young goalkeeper went to on the Under 17 World Cup with England in India.

Trevor 'Jock' Nugent won the Service to Sport Award in recognition of his near 60-year spell of devotion to Appleby AFC.

He played as a centre forward for the club before going on to coach and now deals with maintenance.

He still travels with the team to away fixtures and can give the lowdown on just about every player who has pulled on the club shirt since 1960.

Jogging Pals, a running club based in Kendal, was announced as Community Club of the Year. They

have transformed the lives of over 300 inactive people to become more regularly active through engaging them in running.

Wheelchair basketball sensation Nathaniel Pattinson won in the Performance Award for People with a Disability category.

Ulverston Victoria High School Junior Girls Orienteering Team won the Junior Team award. They are the current reigning British Champions, British School Score Champions, and British Schools Champions. They were also selected to represent GB at the World Schools Championships in Sicily in April.

Team of Year went to Malcolm Wilson's M-Sport Rally Team from Cockermouth.

The winner of the prestigious Sports Personality of Year Award went to three-time British Champion hammer thrower Nick Miller.

Nick, who is just 24 years of age, is a relative youngster in this event yet his personal best distance of 77.55m still stands as the best ever hammer throw on the UK all-time list. He is the highest ranking UK male hammer thrower in Europe, and his world ranking currently stands at 13th and rising.

Craig Cook, of Cleator, from the world of Speedway, picked up Cumbria Performance of the Year 2017 .

The Special Award was awarded to former Caldew School pupil Connor Murtagh, while the the winner of the Young Sports Leader/Volunteer of the Year Award went to Isaac Butterworth of Penrith for his involvement in rugby.

Robbie Skelton was awarded Volunteer of the Year Award for work in rugby and cricket at Cockermouth, and England U20’s Manager Paul Simpson, originally from Carlisle, was named Cumbria’s Coach of the Year for 2017. Nathan who plays Wheelchair Basketball for the Panthers is yet another Cumbrian world cup winner, having enjoyed success with GB's under 23s in Dubai.

Five Rising Star awards were made to Cockermouth RUFC's Cameron Purdham; Calthwaite's football and cricket enthusiast Poppy Scholefield; Oliver Dustin, from Workington, for athletics;

footballer Beau Studholme from Wigton; and Sedbergh School's Daisy Armstrong for excelling at shooting.

The Be Inspired Award went to Copeland's Gary McKee, who raised more than £102,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.