THE people of the Scottish Borders are being urged to vote for the Inspirational Performance of the Year at Borders Sport and Leisure Celebration of Sport Awards.

The awards night returns to the Peebles Hydro on Friday, March 4. 

The Awards have been created to recognise the wealth of sporting talent that exists within the region from sports personalities to teams, coaches, clubs and events.

A judging panel will decide the winners in some of the specialist categories but three of the accolades will be decided by a public vote, including the Inspirational Performance of the Year, Team of the Year and Sports Personality of the Year.

Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw is one of the nominees for the Inspirational Performance of the Year award.

The Jedburgh native can be proud of the progress his side made in 2015.

After a disappointing Six Nations campaign, few would have predicted that the Thistle would emerge with so much credit from their World Cup campaign.

Laidlaw is now joint-second in the list of Scotland's most-appearance as captains, equalling Bryan Redpath's 21 outings as skipper against Australia in the Rugby World Cup quarter-final in 2015.

He started 12 of Scotland’s 14 Tests in the lead-up to the competition and his imperious performances throughout the tournament saw Laidlaw nominated for World Rugby's Player of the Year award.

Leading by example, he bowed out of Rugby World Cup in the quarter-finals as the leading point-scorer with 79, 26 of them – including a crucial late try – coming in the 36-33 win over Samoa that booked his side’s place in the last eight.

Borders para athlete Samantha Kinghorn is is currently triple European champion in the 100m, 400m, and 800m and holds numerous Scottish records.

The 20-year old wheelchair racer from Gordon was selected to compete for Team GB for the Para athletics world championships in Doha, where she won bronze in the 200 metres T53 event at the IPC Athletics World Championships.

2015 was another great year for cyclist Grant Ferguson.

The 21 year-old from Peebles has already represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, and he followed up that success with a the silver medal in the under-23 race at the 2015 UEC Mountain Bike Cross-country championships and gold in the under-23 men’s UCI Mountain Bike XC World Cup in Val di Sole, Italy.

Ferguson capped off an excellent year with a bronze medal in the under-23 men’s cross-country race at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Andorra, fully justifying his billing as one of the finest mountain bikers in the world.


This year's Inspirational Performance of the Year award is sponsored by Artisan PR. 

Get involved with this year’s Celebration of Sport Awards by voting for the sports person you’d like to see win at:

https://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/form/celebration-of-sport-inspirational-performance