Caitlin is a VIP guest at the BT Sport Action Awards 2017

On 4 December, talented sportswoman and Year 12 Sixth Form student Caitlin Illingworth, represented Sheffield Girls’ at the BT Sport Action Woman Awards (in association with The Telegraph) at a star-studded, very glamorous, formal black-tie reception hosted by Clare Balding at the BT Sport TV studio in Stratford in the Olympic Park.

The event celebrates the achievements of incredible and inspiring female athletes each year, and the eight girls chosen to represent GDST schools mingled with current female sporting stars, and saw England striker, Jodie Taylor, being named Action Woman of the Year!

Directors of Sport at GDST schools were invited to nominate Sixth Form sportswomen who have have demonstrated a commitment to GDST school sport, achievement in one or more sports at a high level, a dedication to training, their team or department, and a willingness to ‘give back’ to others within sport: for example, by helping with younger students.

Caitlin’s achievements make impressive reading, not only because of the high level she has achieved in a variety of sports, but also for the commitment she has demonstrated to school sport, as performer and coach. Caitlin has represented her country at home and abroad as an England rounders player; she is a GDST and South Yorkshire athletics champion, having won the GDST Javelin title for 5 consecutive years. She is also a black belt in Taikwando, being placed fourth in the Open World Championships as a junior and coming first in the European Championships.

However, it is her commitment to the sport of badminton where Caitlin has made most impact at Sheffield Girls’, playing for Yorkshire and Humberside from the age of thirteen. In that time, she has inspired many others to take up the sport, and amazingly, she still makes time to play for and coach school teams.

Mrs Good, PE teacher and the school’s Director of Outreach, said of Caitlin; ‘Despite her sporting commitments Caitlin never neglects her academic studies and this is reflected in the 11 straight A’s she achieved in her GCSEs this summer. Caitlin has also found time to take part in the many sporting outreach programmes we run at school, enabling her to make a significant  impact in the wider community.’