The Sanctuary Runners took the award for ‘Best Initiative to promote inclusivity in Sport and Physical Activity’ at the Irish Sport Industry Awards held in Dublin on Tuesday, May 17th.
The annual awards, hosted by the Federation of Irish Sport in association with Clubforce, recognise the value that sport adds to the Irish economy from the sports industry perspective, in addition to celebrating the ongoing work done by national governing bodies and local sports partnerships to promote sport and physical activity nationwide.
In a very competitive category which included the GAA (Inclusive Framework), Sporting Pride (Learn to Swim programme), the Football Association of Ireland (Football for All Programme), Basketball Ireland (Implementation of Cara Xcessible initiative) and Donegal Sports Partnership (Donegal Bay Inclusive Sports Hub) the Sanctuary Runners emerged successful on a wonderful awards evening at the Dublin City Centre Westin Hotel.
Collecting the Award on behalf of the Sanctuary Runners were Chawa Ndlovu (a long time Sanctuary Runner in Dublin) and Graham Clifford (CEO and Founder of the Sanctuary Runners).
Reacting to the Award win Graham Clifford said: “This is just amazing – especially when you consider the wonderful organisations in this very important category. For us sport is about so much more than just competition, its about helping us to build bridges across Irish society, to bring people together regardless of their nationality or legal status. Awards are important, they shine a spotlight on the work you do, and we’re just so grateful and thankful that in winning this particular award many people will be introduced to the Sanctuary Runners for the first time.”
For more information on the Sanctuary Runners go to Sanctuaryrunners.ie