Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan yesterday recognised recipients of the latest round of Local Sporting Champions grants.

At yesterday's event, Mr Hogan presented the local teenagers with a certificate in recognition of their achievements and confirmed their grants from the Local Sporting Champions program.

“[These grants] are for students, or sports men and women in our community, aged between 12 and 18, for when they represent us at state, national, or in some cases international level,” Mr Hogan said.

“The disadvantage our kids have when they want to go to a state title, national tournament, it’s not in their city - they don't live in Sydney, they don’t live in Brisbane, they don’t live in Perth – they’ve got to travel to these places.”

During the ceremony, the recipients and their parents told stories of travelling around the country to compete, which can be an expensive exercise.

“What we're doing today is helping them financially, acknowledging them and celebrating them, because they're elite at what they do and we want to celebrate it,” Mr Hogan said.

Today the Sporting Champions received between $550-$750 to support them in their sporting endeavours, as they represent our community at Regional, State, National and even International events in their chosen sport.

(PHOTO: Kevin Hogan, Malachi Canning, and Annette Sky)

The Lismore App spoke to Annette Sky, the guardian of Malachi Canning, who received one of the awards, about what this grant means.

“Malachi has made it to the Virtus Global Games, which will be held in Vichy, France,” she said.

“He is an Indigenous para-athlete with an intellectual disability, and he has travelled all over Australia competing in different competitions.”

“These grants are really, really good… they all help. For example, France, just for Malachi, is $8,000, plus his uniforms and spending money.”

Also receiving an award and grant today was Lachlan O’Sullivan, who spoke to the Lismore App about his recent trip representing New South Wales in softball.

(PHOTO: Lachlan O’Sullivan receives his award from Kevin Hogan)

“I've been playing baseball my whole life - I played that with Dad - and Mum played softball,” he said.

“When I was about 12, I decided I should go play with Mum because they were having a kid's team to play with the women, so I joined that and got to play softball here locally.”

“Then I learned about representative sport, and I thought, let's try it!”

“Because we didn't have a local rep team, we had to put our names down on the pickup players list, and I got picked up by Newcastle.”

“In my first year, when I got picked up by Newcastle, I made the country team in under-14s, then the next year in 16, I didn't make the team, but I still made the state squad.”

“Then this year, I made the state team, which is what I got this award for.”

Lachlan went on to represent the State, where they made it to the Grand Final, and beat Queensland for the title.

Athletes who received their awards were:

• Alanna Bromhead from Goonellabah – Swimming
• Amirah Shah from Lismore – Athletics
• Beth Lockwood from Caniaba – Swimming
• Cooper Williams from Caniaba - Cricket
• Daniel Frey from Nimbin – Athletics
• Lachlan O'Sullivan from Lismore – Softball
• Logan Connolly from Lismore – Netball
• Mikayla Frey from Nimbin – Athletics
• Saffron Anderson from Goonellabah – Equestrian
• Malachi Canning from Caniaba - Athletics
• Clayton Wilkinson from Casino - Swimming
• Piper Coughran from Swan Bay - Athletics
• Abbie Yourell from Evans Head - Swimming
• Aidan Arnison from Evans Head - Swimming
• Hezakiah Brown from Woodenbong- Athletics
• Felicity Walker from Alstonville – Swimming
• Jaiden Sanders from Wollongbar - Athletics
• Oscar O’Mara from Alstonville - Touch Football
• Taj Doyle from Alstonville - Athletics