The SA Sports Awards Nominees were named last week and, admittedly, raised a fair amount of eye-brows. In between the brilliance in certain nominations, was complete surprise at certain omissions. With that in mind, All Things Jabu presents the alternative SA Sports Awards. In this edition, the winners are people who were not nominated in the category for the full SA Sports Awards. The objective of this post is not to ridicule any of the Nominees for the SA Sports Awards, but rather to recognise the brilliance of those that have been omitted.
Sportsman of the Year – Daryl Impey
Daryl Impey had a great year for South African cycling. The 28-year-old not only won the Team-Time-Trial fourth stage at the Tour de France, the GreenEDGE rider became the first man from Africa to hold the coveted Yellow Jersey for overall lead of the Tour de France. When you think there has been 100 Tour de France races to date, this is an incredible achievement. He also won the National Time Trial Championships and would be a deserving winner of the Sportsman of the Year. In a year where the South African team MTN-Qhubeka made incredible waves, it was still Impey that stood head and shoulders above all others. (Greg Minaar is a credible runner-up in this category)
Sportswoman of the Year – Ashleigh Moolman Pasio
Ashleigh has had another great year in cycling. After finishing 16th in the London Olympics, Pasio pushed on and won the National Time Trial Championships as well as the National Road Race Championships for a second successive year, coupling nicely with her win at the Boels Rental Hill Classic in Holland. Throughout the year her performances have seen her move to 10th-ranked in the world, the highest an African has ever reached.
Newcomer of the Year – Anaso Jobodwana
Although the South African Sprinting sensation qualified for the London Olympics final in 2012 for the 200m, he was not included in the SA Sports Awards last year either. This year saw the young 21-year-old shine. After becoming the first person, since 1975, to win the sprint double at the World Student Games. Fast forward to the World Athletics Championship in Moscow and he runs a semi-final which forces the great Jamaican, Usain Bolt, to speed up. In the final he finished 6th with a time that was just 0.1 seconds behind a bronze medal.
Coach of the Year – Gary Kirsten
Okay, yes he has resigned, but let’s be real, in the year under review, no team dominated their sport like the Protea’s dominated test cricket. Gary was a big reason behind that. His team won in Australia again, beat NZ by two massive scores and gave Pakistan a whitewash. I am not really sure how he was overlooked, but Gary is going to be sorely missed from both the Sports Awards and the Protea fold.
Journalist of the Year – Gary Lemke
I have never hid my fondness for the writing of Gary Lemke and especially his work in the Business Day Sports Magazine. In fact I was share this opinion with the larger fraternity of the sporting media as Gary is the holder of the SAB Sports Media Awards – Journalist of the Year. If you get a chance, try to read his article about why we inherently dislike Murray who is deserving of respect, its one of the best I have read this year.
Were there any other worthy winners that I left out? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.