Sports Awards of the Year 2023 |12 January 2024

Sailor Rodney Govinden and swimmer Felicity Passon are still holding the titles in the male and female senior categories (Photo: Seychelles NATION archives)

Crowning ceremony set for March 1

• Nomination deadline extended to January 19

The Sports Awards of the Year 2023 crowning ceremony is set for Friday March 1, the organising committee has announced, but the selection committee is unhappy with the response by local sports federations and associations.

So far, only five sports federations and associations – karting, darts, handball, judo and athletics – have respected the January 10, 2024 deadline to hand in the names of their top athletes.

It has thus been decided that the deadline will be extended to Friday January 19, 2024 and those who fail to beat this final deadline, their athletes will unfortunately not be considered for the top prizes.

Compared to previous years, sports federations and associations can nominate five athletes in order of preference – one to five – in the senior male and female categories.  In the young male and female categories, sports federations and associations are allowed to nominate three athletes – one to three.

It is important that sports administrators take their responsibilities to avoid that their athletes are left out of the race.

The selection committee has made it clear that it will not accept late entries, thus the onus is on the administrators to do their athletes justice by nominating the best to challenge for the crown.

On January 31, the nominees will be shortlisted to 10 finalists in the senior male and female categories. In the young athletes categories, there will be five finalists in both the male and female classes.

The last time the Sports Awards of the Year crowning ceremony was held was in 2020 to reward the best athletes for the sporting year 2019. Given the financial, health and economic situation of the country as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the NSC board deliberated on the pros and cons of organising the ceremony and eventually concluded that it would not be appropriate to have the event since the majority of the sports federations could not and did not implement their planned activities and programmes to organise competitions in 2020.

Sailor Rodney Govinden and swimmer Felicity Passon are still holding the titles in the male and female senior categories since they were crowned as the best for the sporting year 2019.

Swimmer Felicity Passon won her maiden Sportswoman of the Year title, while sailor Rodney Govinden returned as Sportsman of the Year after a first triumph in 2015.

The two athletes were crowned by President Danny Faure during the 36th Sports Awards of the Year crowning ceremony held at the NSC Hall, Roche Caïman.

Passon became the fourth swimmer – after Elke Talma (1989), Shrone Austin (2003) and Alexus Laird (2016) – to win the Sportswoman of the Year crown.

As for Govinden, his second win put him at par with boxer Andrique Allisop (2012 and 2014) and badminton player Georgie Cupidon (2006 and 2007).

His colleague Allan Julie is the only other sailor to win the Sportsman of the Year crown and he has lifted it a record eight times – 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2011, 2015 and 2016.

Gerard Govinden