2021/22 Athletics NSW Awards Presented

15 March 2023

2021/22 Athletics NSW Awards Presented

At the recent State Championships, Athletics NSW presented many awards from our previous season (2021/22) to a number of available recipients. It was an important opportunity to recognise our athletes and volunteers who have achieved during the season 2021/22. In April the current season awards will be presented at a function to be announced.

The full list of winners were announced in the 2021/22 Athletics NSW Annual Report – page 36.

INDIVIDUAL ATHLETE AWARDS

The winner of the Best Performance by a NSW Athlete at the Australian Championships was awarded to Mali Lovell.

Mali clocked Paralympic Games qualifying performances at the 2022 Australian Championships and in receiving this award defeated Olympians – an outstanding achievement by Mali. She was also named Most Outstanding Junior Para Athlete for 2021/22.

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Competing at one of the rare International events in 2021/22, Allanah Pitcher travelled to Oman to race in the World Athletics Race Walking Teams Championship where she placed an outstanding 7th, the second Aussie junior across the line. She was also part of the silver medal winning Australian junior team. She was awarded the Most Outstanding Athlete in Walks and Most Outstanding Junior Female athlete of the year.

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Decathlete Alec Diamond was awarded the Most Outstanding Athlete Combined events for 2021/22. Twice during the season he broke the NSW record and scored over 8000 points on two occasions. Later in 2022 he was selected for the Commonwealth Games.

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Desleigh Owusu was named the winner of the Nick Winter Memorial Award for Aspiring Triple Jumper. During the 2021/22 season she improved to an outstanding 13.49m to become the sixth best in Australian history. The award is named after NSW’s first Olympic gold medallist from the 1924 Olympics.

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With no international competitions for Masters during the season, Julie Forster was awarded the Most Outstanding Masters Female athlete following terrific performances at the Nationals where she won the women’s 60 years 100m and 200m double. A brilliant Masters athlete, she was also the National record holder in all three events.

COACHES AWARDS

Of all the people in an athlete’s journey in the sport, outside of family, coaches spend the most time with our athletes. They are critical people in the pathway for athletes. Coaches develop critical supportive environments for our athletes to flourish.

For the 2021/22 season Central Coast’s Matt Horsnell was named the International Coach of the Year. Matt is recognised largely due to the outstanding achievement of Nicola Olyslagers in Tokyo where she won the silver medal and raised the Australian record. However, Matt also guided Katie Gunn to the World U20 Championships.

The coaching team of Melinda Gainsford-Taylor and Katie Edwards were awarded the International/national Para-athletics Coach of the Year. They guided Mali Lovell to an outstanding season where she regularly recorded Paralympic standard performances. They also coached emerging para sprinter Sybella Warton and World U20 athlete Olivia Rose Inkster.

CLUB AWARDS

Club administrators are vital to athletics, spending many volunteer hours to support our sport. Illawong’s Karen Herrmann was named Administrator of the Year. As club secretary she was pivotal in the club hosting a number of Athletics NSW events during the COVID effect 2021/22 season. The club also hosted regular sprint and other high performance competitions. Thank you Karen and Illawong club.

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Sydney University were named Club of the Year following their excellent 2021 International and 2022 domestic seasons. Stars including Tokyo Olympic achievements - Nicola McDermott/Olyslagers winning silver in high jump and Rohan Browning making the semi. Collecting the award was their Director of Athletics Jimbo Fitzgerald.

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Bankstown were named Metropolitan Club of the year. During the season, they hosted Athletics NSW events, provided large competitor numbers for the winter events and had elite athletes in Tokyo including Jye Edwards and Olympic finalist Jessica Hull. Collecting the award was their President Colin Whitbread.

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St George receives the club development award. They are recognised for great club spirit and celebrating 100 years with a dinner at their iconic venue Scarborough Park. The event brought together many current and former members. The past members spoke of how the club was like a family and how they grew up there and they could return anytime when a competition was on and they would see familiar faces. Collecting the award was their President Greg Breen.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Images from Greg Griffis and David Tarbotton