Watson storms it with a remarkable 59% of vote

Friday 29th January 2010, 2:30PM GMT.

(Picture by Tony Pike)

HEATHER WATSON was the big winner in an otherwise quiet night for Guernsey sport at the glitzy 2009 Sportingbet Channel Islands Sports Personality of the Year at the Hotel de France last night.

The 2009 US Junior Open champion (pictured) had travelled 24 hours straight from Melbourne to make the awards ceremony which was televised live on Channel TV after she was surprisingly knocked out in the first round of the Australian Junior Open earlier this week.

A record number of 4,868 public votes were received, of which 2,894 were for the 17-year-old.

That was a massive 59.4% share of the votes.

The only other Sarnians to collect an award from special guest Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp was the Guernsey junior fencing team, who gained the junior team prize for winning bronze at the 2009 Junior Commonwealth Fencing Championships in Malaysia in last February.