Ilford’s Ziana Butt says she is ‘delighted and honoured’ to have been nominated for an Asian Women of Achievement Award.

Forest School pupil Butt played for England under-21s at the World Indoor Netball Championships in South Africa last year and has 15 international caps to date.

And she was the only British Pakistani Asian at the England Netball NPL tournament, having also played for Saracens Mavericks U19s since last September.

“I am absolutely delighted and very honoured to be recognised,” she said.

“It is not just a reflection of my personal sporting achievements but also for the volunteering and mentoring I do. I had recently started approaching schools to see if I could assist with netball coaching to inspire more youngsters in our community to take up sport.

“I am conscious there is a lack of Asian female sporting role models. Just prior to schools closing I was able to join the U11 netball training session at Park School for Girls, where I first started my netball journey.”

Butt played in tournaments for Saracens against Gibraltar, Isle of Man and the British Army and has been selected to complete England Netball’s diploma in sporting excellence alongside her A-levels.

“Unfortunately all major tournaments including the England Netball NPL in July I have been training for will, most likely, be cancelled due to Covid-19,” she added.

“Since the start of the ‘stay at home’ period I have continued to join technical training sessions by Zoom with Saracens Mavericks, in addition to weekly shooting classes.

“We have a strength and conditioning programme set by the personal trainers which we complete and mark off on an app on a regular basis. I’ve also been pushing myself by coming up with innovative training ideas on Twitter for others to follow while using this as a means to motivate myself.”

Any schools who would like Ziana to speak to them or their students can contact her via Instagram or Twitter.