Lily Turner's huge honour at receiving British Swimming Award

Water Polo Female Athlete of the Year Lily Turner said it was a ‘huge honour’ to have picked up a British Swimming Award.

The Otter and University of California player beat Cheltenham and City of Coventry’s Amy Berry and City of Liverpool’s Emily Pyper to the title.

She has been described as a ‘special talent’ by University of California Head Coach Coralie Simmons who added: “Her strength, explosiveness and intelligence allows her to dominate numerous aspects of the game.”

Turner said: “It’s a huge honour for me to win this award and I would like to thank my parents for being so supportive and helping me to improve.”

The Male Athlete of the Year prize was won by Cheltenham Swimming and Water Polo Club’s Charlie Brogan.

He was selected ahead of his team-mate Tom Hunt and City of Manchester’s Dan Paddon as his ‘calm temperament, technical ability and strength mark him out as an outstanding young prospect’.

Meanwhile Solihull’s Phil Powell is the British Swimming Water Polo Coach of the Year.

He has led Solihull to the British Water Polo League and the Men’s Super-5s titles and has also coached the England and Great Britain U17s Boys teams.

Powell’s award was collected on his behalf by Jordan Elliot who said: “He would be extremely gracious to have this award.

“He would be very happy to be recognised for the achievements he had had with Solihull and Great Britain and all the other players he has coached at a high level.”

Picture: British Swimming Twitter