Mankert runner up in UKCC awards

Anders Mankert, the head PGA Professional at Cosby Golf Club, celebrated finishing runner up in the prestigious UKCC Coaching Awards in the disabled category.

The Swede rubbed shoulders with some of sport’s greatest coaches and also met was HRH The Princess Royal at the London ceremony.

Mankert has coached blind and visually impaired golfers for more than two decades, giving free lessons and also campaigning in the media to find guides to help them play.

Karate world champion and Aylesbury wheelchair basketball coach Dirk Van Der Merwe collected the Disability Coach of the Year award.

“It was a fantastic black tie event with 400 plus people and legendary coaches there,” said Mankert.

“I came runner up to Dirk Van Der Merwe   - an ex-karate world champion now coaching disabled people who is a fantastic guy. It was quite humbling to be fair, he was a worthy winner.

“It was also great to be alongside the likes of Jurgen Grobler. There were a lot of Olympic and Paralympian coaches there and it was nice to represent golf on the biggest stage in coaching.”

After a record-breaking Olympic Games in Rio for Team GB’s gymnastics squad,  men’s technical director Eddie Van Hoof was named UK Coach of the Year.

The 60-year-old guided Max Whitlock to double Olympic gold on the floor and pommel this summer, just two of the five medals Van Hoof’s squad won in Britain’s greatest ever Games.

Van Hoof was not the only big winner at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Wembley, with his title one of 12 handed out on the night to the cream of British coaches.

Grobler took home the Lifetime Achievement award for his work with the British Rowing men’s squad at the last seven Olympic Games, while sailing coach Martin Boatman picked up the Performance Development Coach of the Year title.

The British Horseracing Authority landed the Governing Body of the Year title, with Katherine Robinson named as the Coach Developer of the Year.
England BC4 Boccia’s Sunil Birdy claimed the Community Coach of the Year prize, with Kieran Henderson winning the Heather Crouch Young Coach of the Year. Scottish gymnastics coach Kieran Brown was selected as Children’s Coach of the Year.

The Coaching Intervention of the Year title went to the RFU’s Somali Rugby programme in London, and British para-swimming head coach Rob Greenwood and Van Hoof were name Paralympic and Olympic High Performance Coaches of the Year, respectively.

And the Coaching Chain of the Year prize went to Team GB’s women’s hockey coach Danny Kerry, Jon Royce, Tricia Heberle, Maggie Souyave, Pete Atwell and Beverly Kinder, who all worked with British skipper Kate Richardson-Walsh on her sporting journey, which climaxed with Olympic gold in Rio.