Sports awards return with a twist
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday April 16, 2022 06:00
Under the new arrangement, members of the public will vote for the 'public athlete/team of the year'. Speaking during the launch on Tuesday, the chairperson of the adjudication panel for the 2020-2021 awards, Charmaine Khupe said the awards have not taken place periodically due to the suspension of sport. “We might recall that at the time, the suspension affected sporting activities and among those, Olympic qualifiers,” she said.
Khupe said in its nature, sport thrives in challenges and credible virtual efforts enabling the holding of some activities, though minimal, by associations. She said as protocols eased and allowed sport to sluggishly return to play, deserving outcomes were delivered that must be recognised. “Performance appraisals rate the previous year’s outcome. Given the unforeseen situation that COVID-19 subjected us to, we had to find a way to reward resilient performances that were carried out in those challenging times.
As such, this years' awards will be recognising performances of 2020-2021 combined,” Khupe said. The Botswana National Sport Commission (BNSC) board chairperson, Marumo Morule said the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Tumiso Rakgare will also award one or more persons during the 41st Botswana Sports Awards. “The awards will be different in two ways, firstly it will combine 2020 and 2021 activities and secondly there is a reduced number of categories, of course noting that some new categories have been introduced to particularly respond to the new era we have just come from,” he said.
The categories and nominees are: Outstanding female athlete of the year (Naledi Marape - chess, Refilwe Ekua Youri - tennis and Kemogetse Kenosi - boxing), Outstanding male athlete of the year (Letsile Tebogo - athletics, Denzel Seetso - tennis and Thuso Mosutha - chess), Outstanding team of the year (The men’s 4x400m relay team - athletics, Jwaneng Galaxy - football and The Mares - football), Outstanding umpire/referee (Gaone Poane - tennis, Emmanuel Kgaboetsile - badminton and Dorothy Okatch - basketball), Outstanding coach of the year (Justice Dipeba-athletics, Phenyo Matong-tennis and Lechedzani Luza - boxing), Resilient national sport association (BOTESSA, Chess and Table Tennis), Sponsor of the year (FNBB, Debswana and Phoenix Assurance Botswana), Public athlete/team of the year (all outstanding female athlete of the year nominees, all outstanding male athlete of the year and all outstanding team of the year nominees).