Officially brilliant: Rose family and Richard revel in our 4J Awards

Friday 22nd October 2021

The Rose family after being named our Technical Official of the Year winners at the 4J Annual Awards (photo by Bobby Gavin)

‘Awards show strong bond between grassroots and elite’ – David Ovens

The 4J Annual Awards are the perfect platform to recognise the contribution of so many people to athletics in Scotland.

That was reflected throughout the night at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow and was underlined a number of times by Guest of Honour Jo Pavey, our Chair David Ovens and chief executive Colin Hutchison.

Our qualified scottishathletics Officials very much fit the bill in that regard and it was good to make two awards to highly deserving winners.

The Rose family from Perth Strathtay Harriers were our recipients of the Technical Official of the Year award.

On a strong short-list, we felt the overall contribution from one family was huge with Kevin, Carol, Rebekah and David regular faces at athletics events across Scotland.

Each member of the family is a dedicated and committed Official in their own right and it was great to see all four on stage to accept the award.

Richard O’Grady receives his award from Officials Commission Convenor, Margaret Brown, at the 4J Annual Awards (photo by Bobby Gavin)

‘Volunteers make the sport happen’ – Jo Pavey

Richard O’Grady had been short-listed for that award but instead collected the Raymond Hutchison Trophy for Services to Officiating.

Richard has been active in athletics throughout his life, but became an Official upon retirement. On top of his usual duties, Richard sits on the Officials Commission as head of his discipline.

He is now working with scottishathletics to lead innovative courses on gun-handling and maintenance, drawing on his years of experience in the police firearms unit.

Richard is actively encouraging new and existing starters to become more familiar with and confident around guns and employs his expertise in a supportive and inclusive manner.