East Kilbride's Jenna is a true star

Mar 26 2008 By Martin Stirling, East Kilbride News

FOR the second year in a row golfer Jenna Wilson scooped the East Kilbride Sports Council’s Personality of the Year.

She collected the top accolade at the council’s 30th annual awards ceremony which was last night (Tuesday).

At a packed Village Theatre, sports stars from throughout the whole district were honoured for their fantastic efforts during 2007.

And in a re-run of last year’s awards Jenna, from Strathaven, won the Senior Female award and pipped windsurfer Alan Jackson to the top overall prize.

As in 2006, Jenna has enjoyed what has been another tremendous golf season.

Throughout the year she finished first in the Scottish Order of Merit and also won the Scottish Amateur Matchplay Championship in May.

Jenna also finished fifth in the Open Strokeplay Scottish Amateur Championships.

And represented Scotland in the European Team Championships, the Home Internationals and various other events throughout the year bringing her to the fore of her sport.

And her success over the year led to her winning a card to compete on the Ladies’ European Tour in 2008, a superb achievement for the local golfer.

Jenna, who is currently training in Majorca ahead of the Spanish Open, was surprised when the Sports Council contacted her to tell her the good news - but she was also deeply honoured.

She said: “There are a lot of top athletes in East Kilbride and Strathaven so I certainly didn’t expect to win — especially since I won the award last year.

“Golf can be a bit of a funny sport in that people don’t realise how hard it is to do well in tournaments suchis the level of the competition.

“Some people can underestimate your achievements when they look at where you’ve finished in competitions over the season so it’s brilliant that the Sports Council voted for me again.

“I was really happy with how things went for me last year and winning this award is the icing on the cake for me and I thank everyone for their support.”

After winning her European Tour card last year Jenna is looking forward to her first tournament of the season in a few weeks.

And she is confident of doing well against some of the top lady golfers in the world.

Jenna said: “At the moment I’m training for the Spanish Open and I can’t wait to play on the European Tour.

“I won my card back in October so it feels as if I’ve been waiting for ages to finally compete in it.

“But I’ve been training in Majorca this week and I feel in good shape so I’m confident I can do well.”

Windsurfing star Alan Jackson, from St Leonards, repeated his success of the previous year by again winning the Sports Council’s Senior Male award.

Other winners on the night were: Junior Male — Douglas Scott (swimming); Junior Female — Cara Jamieson (trampoline); Junior Team — St Hilary’s Primary Six Handball team; Senior Team — Strathavan Bowling Club’s Ladies Pair Team of Betty Sharp and Aileen Scott; Administrator of the Year — Sadie Sinclair (bowls); Coach — Olivia Sorbie (EK Trampoline Club); Services to sport award (supported by Sportscotland and the Scottish Association of Local Sports Councils (SALSC) — Les Goodfellow (EKYM); Veteran — Barbara Sloss (athletics); Club of the Year — East Kilbride Trampoline Club; Special Achievement Award — Stephen McEwan (tennis); under-12 boys’ award — Mathew Meechan (handball); under-12 girls’ award — Pamela Clark (trampoline).