Awards to go ahead
THERE will be no glamorous night out, but the ASB Otago sports awards will live on.
The awards will instead operate online and in print in conjunction with the Otago Daily
Times and Sport Otago and all major sponsors.
The awards have been running for more than 25 years and have been a highlight of the sporting calendar in the region and that will continue, though Covid19 has led to the cancellation of the awards dinner.
The dinner was set for May 22 at the Dunedin Town Hall, but will no longer take place.
Instead the awards will be carried out online and through the Otago Daily Times, and lastminute nominations are being called for.
Sport Otago events manager Michael Smith said he was keen to hear from any sporting organisation which wanted to put someone forward in one of the 10 categories.
He had received plenty of nominations but was keen to cover every athlete in Otago who had performed well.
The categories are: junior male, junior female, official, innovation in sport, services to sport, team, senior male, senior female, coach and the supreme award.
Smith said there had been plenty of good achievements by Otago athletes this year and it should make for some tough competition.
It was disappointing to have to cancel the night out, but that was just one of those things, and it was now about making the best of the situation.
As well as the usual awards there will be a special online voting award for the athlete of the decade.
That would be made up of the supreme winners from the last decade, which included the likes of rower Hamish Bond and cricketer Brendon McCullum.
Smith said the awards were a great way for people to celebrate what had been a fantastic year for sport in Otago.
The female categories will be particularly tough and of a high quality.
Up for awards are top performers such as snowboarder Zoi SadowskiSynnott, motocross world champion Courtney Duncan and world junior swimming champion Erica Fairweather, who all had fantastic years.
SadowskiSynnott won the supreme award last year.
The sponsors for the event are: ASB, Otago Daily Times, Speight's, Mercy Hospital, NZME, PKF, The Torn Group, Otago Polytechnic, Otago Community Trust and the University of Otago.