THE talent and dedication of athletes, sports teams, coaches and volunteers were celebrated at the annual Cumbria Sports Awards.

More than 250 guests congratulated winners at the event, which was held at the Low Wood Bay Resort Hotel in Windermere on Friday evening.

Organised by Active Cumbria, the awards recognise the outstanding talents, commitment and successes of teams and individuals throughout Cumbria who are involved in sport.

Richard Johnston, senior manager at Active Cumbria said: “The awards were a superb event and an excellent opportunity to celebrate the enormous effort and talents of the sporting stars of Cumbria. We had some excellent nominations for the awards this year, and I know that our judging panel had a real task to choose all of the deserving winners.

"It just goes to show what great talent and dedication to sport that we have in the county. The support of the media and our awards sponsors continue to make these awards a massive success, acknowledging the quality of our major sports performers and our emerging talent, as well as recognising the very important role played by the army of volunteers and coaches in Cumbria."

Three of the winners came from the South Lakes area as Ulverston Triathlon Club won Community Group of the Year, blind sailing instructor Ian Shirra, of Windermere, picked up the Coach of the Year while Alice Bowler was given the top gong in the Young Sports Leader of the Year Award for her work with the Kendal School of Gymnastics

Ulverston Triathlon Club is only one year old and has already firmly established itself in the sporting landscape of the area.

They already have over 100 full members and 200 social members and has an excellent committee, which has recruited a large number of dedicated volunteers.

They have worked closely with their national governing body of sport and the county sport partnership to develop in the right way, and now offer activities for all ages and abilities, which take place throughout the week, starting with small come and try it sessions for beginners, right through to structured training and events for the more progressive athletes.

Senior sailing instructor Shirra supports blind fleet racing as a sighted crew member, coaching within the boat, and late last year he helped the GB team become World Champions. Since then he has turned his attention to supporting the blind match racing team.

He has developed his skills to teach the sailors how to plan their race strategy based on noises and how to gain penalties, and also judging time and distance all based on sound.

This support helped the GB team become 2014 International and World Champions in Blind Match racing.

Bowler has been the gymnastics representative on Kendal School of Gymnastics' committee for the past three years and also volunteers as a coach.

Her extensive involvement in coaching covers recreation, competitive and freestyle groups. She also coached and accompanied a group of at their first competition in which they all came away with a medal including the County Champion.