Double Olympic dressage champion Charlotte Dujardin has been named Sportswoman of the Year at the 2014 Sunday Times & Sky Sports Sportswomen of the Year Awards.
It has been a hugely successful 12 months for Dujardin who continued her dominance of the sport, winning gold medals in the special and freestyle events at the World Equestrian Games in France as well as a silver in the team event, adding to her titles at Olympic, European and World level.
Dujardin, speaking from Melbourne, said: “I’m really privileged to be accepting this award and I am so sorry I can't be there.
“I have an incredible relationship with Valegro, I've been working with him for eight years and we know each other inside out. The only way I can describe him is as being my dance partner and he should be up there receiving that award with me, but he's at home in his stable.
“Hopefully we can get some more medals. I've got the World Cup finals coming up in Las Vegas next year and then it's on to Europeans and Olympics in Rio.”
Lizzy Yarnold, British Olympic skeleton champion at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, finished runner-up with European 10,000m bronze medallist Jo Pavey in third.
Stephanie Slater was crowned Disability Sportswoman of the Year after a remarkable 2014. The 23-year-old won seven gold medals at the IPC European Swimming Championships, also setting a world and a European record. She won a silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
The Young Sportswoman of the Year Award went to the rising star of gymnastics, Claudia Fragapane, after an incredibly successful 2014. The 17-year-old won four gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, becoming the first English female to do so at a single Commonwealth Games in 84 years, only eight months after making her senior Great Britain debut.
Ending a run of three successive finals defeats, England’s rugby union world cup-winning team, finally brought home the World Cup in August. A public vote in the category beat off competition from England’s cricketers, the 4x100 metres athletics relay squad and rowers Helen Glovers and Heather Standing.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Louise Martin, vice-chair of the organising committee for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and board member of UK Sport. Martin, a former international swimmer, has a long relationship with the event as competitor, team manager and administrator and played a huge part in the success of the summer spectacular, hailed as the ‘best ever’ by Games Federation president Prince Imran.
Below is the full list of Sunday Times and Sky Sportswomen of the Year Award winners:
Sportswoman of the Year: Charlotte Dujardin
Young Sportswoman of the Year: Claudia Fragapane
Team of the Year: England rugby union team
Disability Sportswoman of the Year: Stephanie Slater
Lifetime Achievement Award: Louise Martin
Community Award: Sue Frett
Helen Rollason Award for Inspiration: Mel Woodards