Our BOOST competition to support women’s sport in the UK has come to a close. We received 60 entries, covering 28 different sports, from all over the UK. We have now picked our shortlist.
It has been a really tough judging process. The entrants were judged based on their story, existing profile and how they could help promote women’s sport in the UK. While some stories were amazing, they didn’t necessarily drive women’s sport. Additionally, we thought that some of the entries that were more about women’s sport would benefit from a cash injection rather than our consultancy package.
We received multiple entries from certain sports, all of who had fantastic stories. The most entries came from judo, canoeing and snooker, which is why our shortlist contains more than one person from the same sport.
We were originally planning to take five people through to the next stage. But the calibre of the entrants was so strong that we now have eight people in our shortlist.
So today, we can announce our shortlist, in alphabetical order:
1. Gemma Cooper, long track speed skating
2. Charlotte Henshaw, paracanoe
3. Deborah Kerr, canoe sprint
4. Emma Parker, snooker
5. Kelly Petersen-Pollard, judo
6. Eire Rowland-Evans, bobsleigh
7. Nikita Setchell, canoe slalom
8. Jemima Yeats-Brown, judo
The judges felt all of the entrants had strong stories to tell and would benefit from our help.
Adam Tanous, director at Frisson, said: “The quality of the entries was really high. We read about some great athletes and I’m sure we can make a real difference helping them raise their profile online.”
A panel consisting of Nicola McKelvey and James Sephton from Performance Communications, Adam Tanous from Frisson and Joe Williams from WH Sports will interview the shortlisted candidates over the next few weeks.
The winner is expected to be announced by the end of February with activity kicking off in March.