WILTSHIRE LIFE Awards 2018 27
Young Sports Personality of the Year
SPONSORED BY
Winner Dan Bethell
Dan Bethell from Chippenham is a member of Team GB Para Badminton Podium Performance
Squad, the elite athletes who are training for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. Dan is the singles
Men’s SL3 European Champion and also won bronze in the doubles at a hotly contested
European Championships in Holland at the end of 2017.
Dan is an accomplished young man who is in full-time education, has a BA degree in
international law and is studying for a masters.
Dan has also given back to the community by supporting the Fit and Fed programme
held last summer, a national programme developed by the sports charity StreetGames to help
alleviate the issues of isolation and improve fitness levels during the school holidays. Six sessions
were delivered in Salisbury and Trowbridge, supporting families on lower incomes.
Dan spent the day cooking and taking part in activities with the children and their parents,
ensuring that everyone involved in the project had a fun day.
Second place Tom Gale
Tom Gale from Trowbridge excels in athletics in high jump. He has been selected for Team
England for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and has won many competitions. He is a member
of the British Athletics Future Programme, which identifies athletes who have outstanding
potential to achieve at the highest levels in their sport. Tom is already demonstrating a hard
work ethic and is very focused. He is keen to be a role model for a younger generation of
athletes, but is also a lovely, modest and unassuming young man.
Third place Hannah West
Hannah West from Melksham won a gold medal at the Adult Gymnastics British
Championships in 2017 in the over-18s intermediate category. It’s a wonderful achievement
made all the more remarkable because Hannah didn’t compete for 10 years after she suffered
a knee injury. She started competing again in 2017 and was supported by Chippenham
Moonraker Gymnastics Club, where she is a director, squad head coach and role model for
more than 300 members, from pre-school to adult.
Dan is part of an elite
squad who are training
for the 2020 Tokyo
Paralympics