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Winners named for annual writing award

The winners have been named for an annual writing award held in memory of a former journalist.

The Wills Writing Awards commemorate Martin Wills, a journalist and amateur jockey who died in April 1992, aged 39 and are designed to reward creative writing around a horseracing theme.

This year’s competition attracted 140 entries in the three categories for young people under 26, under 19 and under 15.

Winner of the under 26 category was Manchester University student Laura McKibben from Macclesfield who wins £1,250 for her story ‘After I’m Gone’ which explores the ways in which a family comes to terms with grief and finds a way to move on through the power of horseracing

The under 19 prize went to Philip Weldon from Navan in Co. Meath, Ireland who receives £500 for his article, The Double, which shows “the roller coaster nature of the racing world through the eyes of a schoolboy.”

Finally the under 15 winner is Fureya Nelson Riggott from Middlewich in Cheshire.  She wins £250 for her article, Beach Race, in which “a girl who dreams of being a jockey fulfils her ambition when she races her friends on the beach.”