Ajmal Maqsood Ahmed scored a hattrick in his sporting accomplishments by winning the ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ at the British Asian Sports Award (BASA) held on February 16th at the Park Lane Hilton, London.

The 27-year-old from Toxteth who studies at the University of Worcester is already the captain of the blind England football team, and had already won the North-West Asian Sports Personality of the Year 2007 and the Disabilty Sports Personality of the Year award. Ajmal has been a Liverpool season ticket holder for nine years, and refused to let being blind from birth stop him from fulfi lling his childhood dream of playing football for his country.

Ajmal, who has over 50 caps for his country helped England qualify for the Paralympics in Beijing and following the success of the side at the European Championships last September was made captain of the team. Over 800 VIPs, including a host of sporting icons, industry fi gures and celebrities attended. The British Asian Sports Awards was conceived to raise the profi le of South Asian sporting talent in the UK, and to function as a springboard for entrants to achieve the recognition which they deserve.

Amir Khan and Mark Ramprakash were among the British Asian sporting talents recognised at this years event with unique award categories acknowledging a variety of sporting fi elds and abilities.

After receiving his award, Sports Personality of the Year winner Amir Khan commented: “It is a great honour to be recognised by BASA for this award . There is a lot of sporting talent out there in the British Asian community, and it is award programmes like this that inspire more to come forward and be counted. I feel really proud to be in a position to encourage more young people to enter professional sports.”

BASA founder, Rajan Singh added: “BASA is now in its 7th year and is continuing to go from strength to strength. You only have to look at the sheer calibre of this year’s winners to see the wealth of Asian sporting talent this country has to offer. Tonight was a great success and having guests such as Gerry Sutcliffe MP, Minister for Sport, here certainly highlights the depth of support BASA is generating.”