Awards finalists named

THE SP Sports Awards finalists were announced yesterday at the SP Brewery office in Port Moresby by Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee deputy secretary-general Andrew Lepani and awards selection panel chairman Moses Koiri.
Lepani said there were a total of 155 nominations for the 11 categories.
He acknowledged sports federations and the public for their participation in the 25th anniversary of the awards.
“We are celebrating 25 years of the SP Sports Awards and the theme for this year is ‘reflecting on the past 25 years’,” Lepani said.
Lepani, who took over the management of the show recently, said the special guest of the awards night would be Australian rugby league legend Wally Lewis.
Koiri, who has chaired the panel for the last four years, congratulated SP Brewery and the PNGOC for their commitment to the awards and their contribution to the development of sports in the country.
“This year, the panel decided to be more efficient in the way we conduct the selections; giving the files to the committee members to spend a bit more time getting their preferences together and we had a meeting this week to come up with the finalists,” Koiri said
He said the SP Sports Awards had grown over time and were now a popular and much-anticipated part of the annual calendar. The prestige and value one gets from winning an award has made it a worthy part of any elite athlete’s possessions.
Finalists – male athlete-of-the-year: Justin Olam (rugby league), Assad Vala (cricket) and Morea Baru (Weightlifting); female athlete-of-the-year: Abigail Tere Apisah (tennis), Thelma Toua (weightlifting) and Toea Wisil (athletics); Team-of-the-Year: PNG Barramundis (cricket), PNG Kapuls (soccer) and PNG Hunters (rugby league); National Performance-of-the-Year; Colin Geno (rugby league), Lae Tigers
(rugby league), Timothy Mako (basketball). Community Sports Initiative: Girls Empowerment Through Cricket, Hoops for Health (basketball) and League bilong Laif (rugby league); junior athlete-of-the-year: Geoffrey Loi (table tennis), Ryan Maskylene (swimming) and Matthew Stubbings (tennis); junior female athlete-of-the-year: Patricia Apisah and Violent Apisah (tennis), Letisha Pukaikia (athletics); best sportsperson-with-a-disability: Joyleen Jeffrey, Elias Larry, Samuel Nason; sports official-of-the-year: Carl Mari (Karate), Michael Marum (rugby League) and Frank Robby (weightlifting); sports media award finalists: EMTV Sports, Isaac Liri (The National newspaper), Post Courier Sports team; photo-of-the-year finalists: ‘Golden Girl’ a picture of PNG U20 women’s soccer player Nicolette Ageva; Australian Prime Minister’s XIII players ‘GI’ Greg Inglis by Mark Talia (Post Courier), ‘Piggy back anyone’ a picture of David Klemmer carrying spectators by Fidelis Sukina (Post Courier).