World youth 200m champion Desiree Henry, junior world epee champion Phillip Marsh, European Youth Olympic 1,500m swimming champion Joel Knight, and Sally Brown, a 200m bronze medallist at the IPC World Championships and Paralympic World Cup who also won gold and silver at the IWAS World Junior Championships, are among those nominated.

The winner of SportsAid's One-to-Watch Award 2011 will be announced on November 16 at the charity's annual SportsBall in London.

A panel of experts from BBC Sport, UK Sport, Sport England, the British Olympic Association (BOA), the English Institute of Sport and SportsAid chose the shortlist from a longlist of 70 of the 2,000 athletes SportsAid has funded this year.

BBC Sport commentator Paul Dickenson, who was one of the panel members, said: "All of the athletes on this shortlist are ones to watch for the future.

"Through their exceptional commitment and performances this year each of them has shown that they have terrific potential.

"Like all SportsAid athletes it will be exciting to see their careers develop through 2012 and beyond."

SportsAid's awards manager Emmanuel Blanchard said: "If you want to see the next big thing in British sport, this is the shortlist to watch.

"Previous nominees and winners have gone on to achieve great things in sport and we hope to see some or all of them competing at an Olympic or Paralympic Games one day.

"For some, this could be as soon as London 2012 but most will already be looking to 2016.

"SportsAid is proud to support all of these athletes, who are among Britain's leading young sports talent, at this critical stage in their careers."

SportsAid helps talented young disabled and able-bodied athletes to achieve their ambitions.

Since 1976, the charity has distributed around £50 million ($80 million/€57 million) to aspiring athletes throughout Britain.


This year, SportsAid has helped 2,000 of Britain's best young athletes by providing them with SportsAid Awards, which are funded by the charity's donors, partners and supporters, to recognise their achievements and to help them meet the cost of training and competing during the critical formative years of their careers - when individual sponsorship deals can be hard to find.

Many of the athletes supported by SportsAid go on to achieve international success.

For example, 18 of the 19 gold medals won by Team GB at the 2008 Olympics went to SportsAid athletes, and more than a third of Team GB's 42 gold medals at the 2008 Paralympics were won by SportsAid athletes.

By working with the governing bodies of around 70 sports in Britain to identify and support athletes who show the greatest potential, SportsAid ensures the right people are helped in the right way at the right time.

A typical recipient of a SportsAid Award is aged between 12 and 18, spends around £5,500 ($8,800/€6,275) a year on their sport, and train for 15 hours a week on top of other commitments such as schoolwork.

The athletes on the longlist were nominated by the governing bodies of the sports in which they compete and the final shortlist, in alphabetical order, is as follows:

Sally Brown (Para athletics, age 16, from Londonderry); Desiree Henry (athletics, 16, Enfield); Joel Knight (swimming, 16, Potters Bar); Crystal Lane (Para cycling, 26, Exeter); Jess Leyden (rowing, 16, Todmorden); Phillip Marsh (fencing, 16, Bradford-upon-Avon); Kieran Martin (windsurfing, 16, Stoke-on-Trent); Rebecca Martin (archery, 15, Stoke-on-Trent); Pamela Relph (rowing, 21, Aylesbury); Lauren Taylor (golf, 17, Rugby); Megan Viggars (volleyball, 17, Newcastle-under-Lyme); Rhys Walker (badminton, 17, Nuneaton); Jemima Yeats-Brown (judo, 16, Tonbridge).

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