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Inspirational referee Jawahir Roble added another trophy to her cabinet when she was crowned Sports Personality of the Year at the Somali Achievement Awards.

The Awards night, held at Greenford and attended by dignitaries including the Mayor of Ealing and Labour Cllr Rakhia Ismail, celebrate the achievements of young people in areas of music, education, sports and the community.

Known as Jawahir Jewels or JJ to her friends, Jawahir first got involved in refereeing whilst still in her teens, volunteering at Capital Girls League, where she took care of the administration and prepared the equipment before the teams arrived.

JJ stepped in to officiate a game at short notice and that proved to be her springboard to a new career. Soon after she took a refereeing course with the Middlesex FA and has continued to progress through the ranks.

She was presented with a Match Official gong at The FA's 2017 Respect Awards, one of 11 winners chosen from more than 1,000 nominations.

JJ's latest award is not likely to be the last either,  and she is on a shortlist of three alongside Olympic 10,000m runner Mohammed Ahmed and national basketball team assistant coach Fartun Osman in the Sports Person of the Year category for the prestigious International Somali Awards.

The ISA pays tribute to inspiring Somali success stories from all walks of life, and recognises inspirational role models from the fields of business, social work, sports, education and entertainment. 

You can vote for JJ by clicking on the link here. Voting closes on 12 March 2018.

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