Ending the year

The 31st December, every year, provides a time for us to look back on the year now behind us and remember those times that have made us laugh, cry, shout and scream. For me, this year has felt like a long and tough one and I'm not overly sad about leaving it behind. But when I look back, it has been an incredibly successful one, that I have had some amazing moments in. 

I haven't had chance to do a long awaited blog post, or anything particularly special to mark the end of the year but don't worry, one will be with you in the New Year! So for now, here is a link to a short video, packed with my highlights of 2014.....

http://slide.ly/view/51eb934feea63f73816838281613bcf1?utm_source=Fb_ORG_Share

Sporting celebrations

At the end of what seemed to be a very long week, I travelled up to Glasgow on Sunday to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards show, which was held at the SSE Hydro arena and I got to have the full 'red carpet' experience in my fabulous Ted Baker dress .

I actually missed 70% of the awards ceremony itself, due to me being on a panel for BBC Radio 5 live in another room with several other panellists, but I did manage to follow what was happening through their coverage.

It's a rare occasion that athletes get the chance to all meet up and let their hair down, but Sports Personality of the Year allows that to happen and with the GB Paralympic Team laying down some awesome performances this year, it was fantastic to finally have a strong number of disabled athletes invited, to celebrate their phenomenal achievements. Here's to even more next year and we'll have a good representation among the nominees.

A different sort of day

I suppose today wasn't really typical of my usual days, which are currently mostly filled by training, university, study, training, study and more training, interspersed with eating and sleeping!

My morning started with an early train into London for a meeting with the British Athletics Commission, from there I went and met with representatives of the Silverfit Charity to sign one of their murals created by pupils of the Stephen Hawking School in Tower Hamlets along with the artist Richard Tait. I understand the mural will be auctioned in the Spring for the charity.

Then it was a trip to the Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden for the Sports Journalists British Sports Awards.  There were no awards for me on this occasion but it was a great afternoon celebration of British sport and I did get to meet some truly amazing and inspirational people.  Plus of course, I got to wear a stunning dress from Ted Baker for the day!

With Maggie Alphonsi of the England WRU team

 

The legendary Michael Parkinson

Inspiring future sports stars

As part of my role as a panellist on the BBC Young Sports Personality, I was asked to do an interview for some students as part of the BBC School Report feature. 

My interview by School Reporters from Knightswood Secondary School in Glasgow has just been published on the BBC and you can read it via the link below.

Hannah's Interview for BBC School Report

I really enjoy talking with young people and sharing my story and experiences in the hope that they may be inspired to challenge themselves, or to keep working hard if they are already involved in sports, or other activities which take training, patience and dedication.