Grand National-winning jockey joins top British athletes shortlisted for prestigious award
CHELTENHAM, ENGLAND - MARCH 16: Rachael Blackmore onboard Honeysuckle celebrates after victory in the Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy (Grade 1) on Day One of the Cheltenham Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse on March 16, 2021 in Cheltenham, England. Sporting venues around the UK remain under strict restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit spectators inside venues resulting in events being held behind closed doors. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Grand National-winning jockey Rachael Blackmore has been shortlisted for the BT Sport action woman of the year title.
The annual awards, which take place on 6 December, aim to celebrate the “outstanding achievements” in what has been hailed as a “groundbreaking” year for women’s sport.
Rachael has enjoyed a record-breaking 2021. She became the first woman to win the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and the first to finish as top jockey at the Festival, with six winners. She then rode Minella Times to victory at Aintree to become the first female jockey to win the Grand National.
The other nominees in the action woman of the year category are cyclists Sarah Story and Laura Kenny, tennis player Emma Raducanu, weightlifter Emily Campbell, and athlete Kadeena Cox. Gymnasts Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova, cricket player Alice Capsey and footballer Lauren James have been nominated in the rising star category.
“2021 was hailed ‘the year of the female Olympian’, with Team GB taking more women than men to a summer Olympic Games for the first time in its 125-year history, and Team GB’s women certainly delivered, from Laura Kenny becoming the most successful female cyclist in the Games’ history to the Gadirova sisters laying the promising foundations for the future of British gymnastics. These achievements were matched by the Paralympic team, with record-breakers such as Sarah Storey and Kadeena Cox propelling Team GB to second in the medal table,” said a BT Sport spokesman.
“But women’s sport shone away from Tokyo too, with Emma Raducanu becoming the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam tournament in the open era and Rachael Blackmore being crowned the first female jockey to win the Grand National.”
The winners will be decided by a public vote via the website www.btsport.com/actionwoman.
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Aintree pioneers: celebrating Rachael Blackmore and 7 other remarkable women
‘I don’t feel male or female right now — I don’t feel human’: Rachael Blackmore becomes the first ever woman to win the Grand National
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