Canary Wharf Sports Personality of the Year announced

Canary Wharf Group is delighted to announce the winner of the Canary Wharf Sports Personality of the Year Award, Karissa Ho, who at only nine years old impressed the judges with her success in Karate.

Karissa beat off strong competition from a remarkable array of nominees at a ceremony held at Canary Wharf’s East Wintergarden last night in front of over 250 local sports people, administrators and local dignitaries to receive her trophy from international cricketer Monty Panesar.

On winning the award Karissa’s Mum Sally said: “Karissa was a little overwhelmed when they announced her as the winner as she didn’t expect it and just wanted to thank everybody”

Karissa started Goju Ryu Karate training aged five, and has now competed in 19 national and four international competitions. During this time she has achieved 14 gold, 12 silver and four bronze medals. The end of 2018 year saw Karissa reach a peak by winning double gold at the Seiwakai International in London, she then went on to represent Great Britain at the Japan Karate Federation Goju Kai World Championships in Akita.

Three local sporting groups were also recognised for their achievements last year, these were Karissa’s own club Ko Yudansha Karate, Vallance Disability Football Team and the London Cricket League.

Canary Wharf Group’s Managing Director and Company Secretary, John Garwood added: “Congratulations to all the fantastic nominees and winners at this year’s Canary Wharf Sports Personality of the Year Awards. This event is a highlight of our year and I am always blown away by the talent and dedication of the nominees and the volunteers who support them”.

This is the eighteenth annual Canary Wharf Sports Personality of the Year Awards and Canary Wharf Group is proud to have invested in sport and talented athletes in the surrounding area of London for nearly 30 years as part of its commitment to the local community.

The awards were supported and atteded by a number of local dignitaries, including Nick Bitel, CEO London Marathon and Chair, Sport England; Speaker of Tower Hamlets, Cllr Ayas Miah; Stephen Thompson MBE, MD Dagenham & Redbridge FC; Metropolitan Police central east Commander Sue Williams; Borough Commander for Tower Hamlets, Leslie Morgan OBE DL and sporting legend and arguably one of the fastest bowlers in world cricket, Devon Malcolm.

Winners on the evening were:

• Sports Personality of the Year for 2018: Karissa Ho

• Junior Team of the Year: Ko Yudansha Karate

Ko Yudansha Karate have excelled in 2018 the 15-strong team won 52 medals across 17 tournaments around the country and in Europe. The team have spent time improving tactics and physical conditioning which contributed to an incredibly strong showing at the Association’s End of Year International competition. The team’s results at this tournament helped their club to reach second place overall; outstanding for a small club. The team are now well placed to seize their opportunities leading toward the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and beyond.

• Senior Team of the Year: Vallance Disability Football Team

Vallance Disability Football Team is made up of players from the Disability Sports Programme at Vallance and they have been training with the club for the past three years. The team entered the South London Special League in September 2017 and have been playing every month since. So far the team have entered ten events and won eight and finished runners up twice.

• Group Achievement Award: London Cricket League

London Cricket League is a community sports organisation that emerged in 2017 with the popular format T10 & T20 tournaments and league for the large numbers of different age groups. LCL successfully organised a number of cricketing events in 2018 including; Junior Cricket Championship, LCL T20 Sunday League, UK Bangla T10 media cup, T10 Gold Cup Tournament, LCL T20 Sunday League and the UK Bangla T10 media cup.