Charlotte Callinan is Penrith Press’ Junior Sports Star, Layla Sharp Inspiration Award winner
The Penrith Press’ 2019 Junior Sports Star and Inspiration Award winner have been revealed at a gala dinner in Sydney.
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There’s not many young Australians who are more comfortable on the back of a horse than Charlotte Callinan.
Charlotte is one of the best horse reiners in the country and it is why she has been named the Penrith Press’ Junior Sports Star.
The awards, sponsored by Featherdale Wildlife Park and Bankstown Sports Club, were held on Wednesday night with the rising stars of NSW sport mingling with big names, including rugby league’s Jamie Soward and netball gun Tayla Fraser.
PHOTO GALLERY: LOCAL SPORTS STAR WINNERS
Along with her horses Opie (OP Hesa Smart Whiz) and Wimpy (Topsail Wimpy), Charlotte has taken out multiple state championships over the years on the way to being crowned Reining Australia’s high points youth champion.
“I’m really shocked, I didn’t think I would be able to come this far with horse reining,” Charlotte said.
“It’s really a small community that does the sport that I do so it’s pretty cool to be able to do this sort of stuff.
“I would love to go and compete in the US one day.”
Other finalists in this category were gymnasts Tru Hagens and Jose Caballero.
Layla Sharp is the Penrith Press’ Inspiration Award winner.
Passion and determination can overcome any obstacle and Layla is living proof of this.
Despite being peripherally blind, Layla dominated at the 2019 NSW Open athletics championships.
She shattered two longstanding records on the way to claiming 800m gold with a time of 2.54 and 1500m gold with a time of 6.06.
She also came away from the NSW junior athletics championships with a bronze medal in long jump.
Inspiration finalists were Zoe Mark and Ephraim Agoo.
Each of our Junior Sport publication winners and Inspiration Award winners received $300 and a medal.
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Joshua O’Connell (Inner West Courier) was crowned overall Junior Sports Star winner on the night after breaking the world 800m record for 11-year-old’s in April.
Swimmer John Dimech-O’Connell (Macarthur Chronicle) won the overall Inspiration Award and the under 14s Gosford City Rebels girls basketball team (Central Coast Express Advocate) the overall team award.
The overall Service to Sport winner was Chung Dang (Canterbury-Bankstown Express).