Nominations for the 2010 Central Energy Trust Sportsperson of the Year Awards have opened one month earlier than usual.
Mike Daisley, chief executive officer at Sport Manawatu, says this is to allow for top athletes from the summer sports to get their nominations in ahead of schedule.
“The nomination qualifying period will remain October 1 2009 – September 30 2010, but we wanted to allow for athletes to have plenty of time with the paperwork rather than a big rush in September-October,” says Mr Daisley.
He adds that they have been consulting with partner organisations to ensure there is no clash of dates this year.
“This year people can mark nice and early in their diaries Friday November 12, for the Sports Awards.”
The awards which have been run by Sport Manawatu for the last 22 years aim to recognise outstanding achievements of local Manawatu athletes, coaches and officials.
Last year’s Sportsperson of the Year was Ross Taylor, while the People’s Choice Award went to Jesse Sergent.
“We have already seen some fantastic results this year from athletes like Jesse Sergent, Kris Gemmell and Aaron Cruden, so it will be interesting to see how all the nominations stack up,” says Mr Daisley.
The seven categories in the awards are: sportsperson, junior sportsperson, sports team, administrator, coach, official and for the first time, masters. Nominations will close on 4pm Thursday October 8 2010.
Nomination forms are available from Sport Manawatu at 50 Queen Street or online at sportmanawatu.org.nz.
