Wheelchair sports men & women were honoured today. Janet Mc Morran, Lucy Shuker and Anna Tarkowski all bagged three cups each at the tenth yearly celebration of wheel chair sports held at the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre in Reading, England. Mc Morran won a lifetime achievement award and Shuker won an Individual Female Achievement Award. Tarkowski bagged the Junior Female of the year Award. This is the third successive year that so many people walked away with more than one prize.

The lifetime achievement award was presented to Mc Morran in honour of a career within which she has won seven national singles and twenty-one international titles. She has reigned over the sport for one and a half decades. She has the privilege of being the only one to have participated in all the Paralympic Games ever since they were conceived. Her speciality became a fully recognized medal awarding sport in 92 in the Barcelona games. In ’90, she was the only female representative of her nation to participate in the maiden British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships. She was also the only female participant in that competition. The first British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championship formulated one quarter of the tournaments in the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour-the Wheel chair Grand Slam.

She stayed on the top of player’s ratings with her wins. Her highest spot on the rating was No. 6. She won her last seven titles last May. She has remained the No.1 wheel chair tennis player in Britain. She has held the No. 1 rank for most of this year, a ranking that belonged to her for almost her entire career of one and a half decades. This year she had a good run with Shuker as a doubles partner. On being asked whether she was close to calling it a day, she said that she was not done with the game yet but she assured us that she would let the youngsters take over at the 2012 Paralympics in the British Capital City.

Shuker too is an equally great player with an equally great run. She was presented the Individual Female Achievement Award for the year she had on the court. 2005 was her first full year on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour. She went up to number two in the country. She beat the No. 1 Mc Morran twice during that run. She is on her way to entering into the world’s best thirty playing wheel chair tennis players. She seemed to be in top form and displayed it against all the higher ranked players she played against. She was a finalist in the Sardinia Open and Nottingham Indoor Tournament and a semi-finalist in the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour events. She is Britain’s no.2 doubles player. She did enjoy the top spot on that list once but so far she has had the lowest doubles ranking of No. 13. She got her Main Draw Doubles National Trophy in May when she had Mc Morran as her partner.

This partnership rules most of the doubles matches on the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour. Their double team went as far the semi finals in the womens doubles category in the British Open. They won the same category at the North East Tournament in Sunderland and the Sardinia Open. In the other tournaments they finished second. Their dynamic teamwork got them a green card entry to the Camozzi Doubles Masters. The Camozzi Doubles Masters has the largest prize money involved. It is the most respected of doubles wheel chair tournaments worldwide. They came third in the Camozzi Doubles Masters Tournament.

Tarkowski, a 16 year old, bagged the award for Junior Girl of the Year. She gained good ground by constantly winning national and international events. In ’05, she debuted in both senior and junior rankings. Her first attempt was a close call. She missed getting into the semi-finals by a little bit at the Second Draw Singles at the North West Challenge at South Ribble. She reached the womens single quarterfinals at the National Championships for the first time.Hence, she was taken to represent Great Britain on a Junior Level at the Invacare World Team Cup. She was promoted to the womens senior team where her strong performances against her elders with less prior practice because she was writing her GCSE exams at her time.

She was informed of these matches at short notice and she performed exceptionally well at them considering that she had her opponents experience and age against her. She represented her country at the International Junior Camp in  Holland where she showed even more promise performing with age and experience going against her since she was playing against older participants. The senior most players in the Tour are looking forward to the Prague Cup Czech Indoor Tournament to end their year on a good note.