A SPECIAL award is to help two of Kent's most promising athletes toward their dreams of success.

Lisa Dobriskey, 18, and Laura Fox, 17, are this year's recipients of the Gordon Underwood Trust Award, set up in 1997 in memory of a former senior lecturer in Sport Science at Canterbury Christ Church University College. The award takes the form of sports psychology sessions with the college's sport science department.

Dobriskey, who lives in New Romney and attends the town's Southlands School, and Fox, who lives in Headcorn and goes to Homewood School, Tenterden, are both members of Ashford Athletic Club.

Dobriskey specialises in 800m, 1500m and cross-country running, and is a member of the Great Britain junior team for the World Cross-Country Championships in Dublin this weekend. Fox, a discus and shot put competitor, has a third place in the English Schools and second in the AAA championships to her credit.

The awards were presented at Christ Church on Monday by the award trustees, Dr Underwood's daughter, Helen Underwood Miller, his friend and colleague John Wright, and sport science lecturer Jerry White, both a former student and colleague of Dr Underwood.

Dr Underwood worked with many sports people, helping them to deal with the psychological challenges of reaching higher levels of competition, and the trust aims to continue his work.