CROSSGATES boccia star Kieran Steer was Cowden-Gelly's big winner at the Dunfermline and West Fife Sports Council awards.

The 21-year-old was named as the winner of the East Kilbride Sports Council award for athletes with a disability at the annual prizegiving ceremony that took place in the Glen Pavilion, within the town's Pittencrieff Park, on Wednesday.

But Cowdenbeath's talented athletics competitor, Jack Lawrie, missed out on the top prize of Sports Personality of the Year for the second year in a row.

The awards ceremony celebrates the sporting achievements of individuals, clubs and coaches from across the West Fife area but there was plenty of representation from Central Fife throughout the 11 categories.

Lawrie, 20, was one of three nominees for the evening's top prize and had been hoping to make it second time lucky after narrowly missing out to swimmer Tain Bruce 12 months ago.

The 400 metres hurdler, who trains with Pitreavie Amateur Athletics Club, was up against Scottish champion cyclist, Joe Nally, and para-triathlete Alison Patrick, who won a silver medal in the PT5 para-triathlon at the Rio Paralympic Games.

Despite a superb 12 months that included winning the British under-23 title, despite being one of the youngest among the field, participating in the British Championships that doubled as trials for the Olympics and winning gold at the Scottish Athletics National Senior and Under-17 Championships, he missed out on the top prize to world and European champion Patrick.

There was better news for Kieran Steer, who picked up the East Kilbride prize after missing out – ironically to Patrick – last year.

Steer qualified to compete in his first Paralympics and performed admirably in both the individual and mixed pairs competitions in the BC4 classification.

After being handed a tough draw in the individual event, he came close to a medal in the pairs alongside team-mates Stephen McGuire and Evie Edwards, narrowly losing out in the semi-final and bronze medal match.

After picking up his award, he said: "It was an amazing experience. The way I played individually was good but, unfortunately, I got drawn in the hardest group!

"This is really good and I'm looking forward to hopefully adding more trophies and medals in the future."

Cowdenbeath bowlers Billy Allan and Barbara McMillan were also nominated in the same category, while Beath High School's Declan Pierce was a nominee for the Active School Ambassador of the Year.

There were male and female winners for the award, which is given to "school ambassadors who have given exceptional service to their school and, by doing so, helped to foster and develop sport locally", but Declan missed out to St Columba's pupil Daniel McGuinness.