SP Sports awards set

A TOTAL of 33 finalists for the 11 categories of the 2017 SP Sports Awards will be assembling tomorrow night at the Crown Plaza hotel in Port Moresby for the winners to be announced.
Commemorating the event’s 25th anniversary, major stakeholders of the event SP Brewery and the PNG Olympic Committee will be presenting special guest of the night, Australian rugby league legend, Wally Lewis.
Since the event’s inception in 1992, the awards have grown with time, recognising talent in the sporting fraternity.
PNG Olympic Committee deputy secretary Andrew Lepani said that the organisers received 155 nominations this year.
Lepani said early this month that 163 nominations was the record they received one year “so it is good to see that we nearly broke that record”.
The presentation night will feature the theme “reflecting back on the 25 years”.
Public participation in this year’s awards was also acknowledged by the organisers because in the past the awards nominations were only from sporting federations however, the increase in public participation indicated that the event has developed over the last two decades.
The finalists in the four main categories of the are: male-athlete-of-the-year – Justin Olam (rugby league), Assad Vala (cricket), Morea Baru (weightlifting); female-athlete-of-the-year – Abigail Tere Apisah (tennis), Thelma Toua (weightlifting), Toea Wisil (athletics); team-of-the-year: PNG Barramundis (cricket), PNG Kapuls (soccer), PNG Hunters (rugby league); national-performance-of-the-year; Colin Geno (rugby league), Lae Tigers (rugby league), Timothy Mako (basketball).