The inaugural Health Club Awards - which are judged by individual club members - have attracted an incredible 16,000 votes.

Voting closed at midnight last night (30 March) and more than 200 clubs will now have to wait patiently as the vote audit gets underway.

Simon Brown, who runs the competition said: "In the first year we've seen a phenomenal response.

"We now have to go a very thorough audit process before we can announce the shortlist, with more than 350,000 pieces of data to collate and check it's a long process".

That shortlist will be announced exclusively in Health Club Management in June. The regional and national winners will then be announced at an event at the Hilton Metropole NEC in Birmingham on 20th September - coinciding with Leisure Industry Week (LIW) held at the NEC the same week.

Clubs who missed out on this year's competition can sign up for the 2012 by clicking on to 2012.healthcluboftheyearawards.com/