Blackpool's Brendene Hardy receives top lifetime achievement award from British Gymnastics

A Blackpool woman’s decades of dedication to gymnastics has been honoured with one of the sport’s greatest accolades.

Brendene Hardy’s services as a judge and coach over 46 years saw her presented with the Frank Edmonds Trophy at the British Gymnastics National Awards in Telford.

This lifetime achievement award, named after a longtime president of British Gymnastics, is the highest honour the body can bestow on an amateur.

It was presented to Brendene by former Prime Minister Sir John Major, patron of British Gymnastics.

Now aged 77 and based in Sefton Avenue, Poulton, Brendene began coaching in the 1970s and was co-founder of Fylde Coast Gymnastics Club. As a member of the world’s elite judging panel, she has adjudicated at World Championships, European Championships and the Commonwealth Games.

A statement on the British Gymnastics website says of her Frank Edmonds Trophy success: “Brendene was seen as the perfect recipient of the award for going above and beyond for our sport.”

Brendene, who was born and bred in Blackpool, last featured in these pages in 2012, when she was appointed judges’ liaison officer for that year’s Olympic Games in London, a role which involved co-ordinating an international panel of the world’s top judges.

Brendene told The Gazette back then that she expected to reduce her workload after the London Games, though she remains passionate about her sport and is still heavily involved.

“I’m still judging at weekends, and running courses and committee meetings,” she said. “I’m involved with the Blackpool, Garstang and City of Manchester clubs. And although I don’t actively coach anymore I’m am busy advising.

“We judges have to requalify every four years because the sport evolves so quickly. Another four-year cycle will begin after this year’s Tokyo Olympics, so that might be my time to bite the bullet.”

Brendene has shared her longstanding passion for gymnastics with proud husband Keith, a former gymnast himself and her coaching partner.

Nobody was more delighted than him to see Brendene receive her award from a former PM.

“It was really nice and quite emotional,” she recalls. “It had been a real surprise when the letter arrived saying I had won it.

“The ceremony was lovely. It’s a beautiful trophy and my only worry was that I might drop it.”