SNOWBOARDING star Dean Horsfield was recognised as Hyndburn’s Rising Star at the Lancashire Sports Awards at Preston.

The award is for Under 18s and Dean came out on top in the borough after he enjoyed a successful year - finishing third in the National Snowboarding competition and sixth place in the European Burton AM Tour.

A film of his snowboarding talents was shown at Preston Guild Hall which including a host of sporting greats such as footballers Tom Finney OBE and Jimmy Armfield OBE.

Dean, who spent some of the summer in Whistler in Canada receiving special training from British coaches, is just about to begin a busy few months for the Great Britain team.

This will include the Burton AM tours which are in Germany this month, then there is a European competition in Holland in December and then a training camp in Geneva at the end of the year.

The St Christopher’s pupil, who got involved in snowboarding at Ski Rossendale, will also be competing at the world rookie festival in January in Italy and then he is off to Norway in February before finishing off with a training week in March.

Then there is the big one - the British Championships in Switzerland.

He will also travel with the Burton team to Avoriaz next April for training and a possible sponsorship deal.