S-FACTOR ACADEMY AWARDS EVENING, 25TH NOVEMBER 2017

S-FACTOR ACADEMY held an Awards Evening on Saturday 25^th November 2017 in honour of our members. Hosted at Bonus Pastor Catholic College in Bromley, this was our first Awards Evening since 2013 and was an evening of reward, recognition, inspiration and entertainment and we hope all who joined us for the celebrations left with a spring in their step, feeling motivated!

The proceedings, led by our engaging hosts Adesola Ojemakinde and Dami Makinde, began with a bang after drinks and dinner with a lively, fun performance from KB, of “Move with KB” a well-known afro-beats dancer who has appeared in a number of music videos.

Then through watching archive video footage, we were reminded of the inspiring and incredible careers of our Olympian Ambassadors Christine Ohuruogu and Ade Adepitan who were on hand to present our athletes with their trophies. We were also honoured to have radio DJ, TV Presenter and Head of Peckham BMX “CK Flash” who provided some words of encouragement and wisdom for our young athletes. CK Flash transformed wasteland in Peckham into the grounds of the UK’s number 1 BMX club, home to some 70% of the British cycling team. Also on hand to encourage our athletes was one of our principal stakeholders Chris Grant, CEO of Sported, an independent national sporting charity which currently supports over 3,000 community groups in the UK. Chris also sits on the board of Sport England.

Other notable performances of the evening came from the young talented artist Skylar Lawson, who sang two beautiful acoustic songs, playing her guitar (definitely one to watch!) and Donovan Haffner an incredible 16 year old student who has graced the stage at Ronnie Scotts. Donovan mesmerised the audience with his saxophone, playing two jazz numbers. Our final performance of the night was a rendition of Sam Smith’s “Stay with Me” – sung by our very own Kerlis Norbal.

Our key note speech of the evening came from Ade Adepitan who moved the audience relaying his poignant journey from the child born in Nigeria and struck with polio to Olympic level wheelchair basketball champion! His story is truly amazing and reminded us all that the seemingly ‘impossible’ is never that, with the right level of focus, hard work and opportunity.

The evening ended with Mr Stuart Ashby (honorary namesake for our MVP award of the evening) giving an insight into the athletics journey of S-Factor Academy’s founder, Lisa Miller, former GB athlete and Commonwealth Games Silver medallist!

Lisa captivated the audience with her heart-warming speech relaying the beginnings of S-Factor Academy, her vision for the first Junior athletics club in South London and the club’s ethos, which is to use athletics holistically to develop not only athleticism in our athletes but to also provide them with invaluable life skills, making them the very best, well-rounded individuals that they can be. Our next generation!

NOW TO THE IMPORTANT PART!

S-Factor Academy would not be what it is without our STARS OF THE NIGHT, our AMAZING ATHLETES. The full list of winners follows, along with a selection of photos from the event, but not before giving a SPECIAL MENTION to this year’s winner of the STUART ASHBY (MPV) AWARD, one of the most inspiring and incredible young athletes to join S-Factor Academy, who has captured our hearts since he joined us this summer: CALLUM CLARK.

Congratulations Callum – we salute you!

S-FACTOR ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS 2017: