Well done to all the amazing sportspeople who have been named as awards finalists - and especially to those from our sport, Kate Heffernan (Junior Sportswoman), Jono Bredin (Official), and the Southern Steel (Team)!

Check out the Official Sport Otago Press Release below!

Sport Otago, 24 April 2018

The judging panel had their work cut out for them deciding on the finalists for the 2018 ASB Otago Sports Awards with many of the athletes competing on the international stage over the last year. The year is from 1 April 2017 till 31 March 2018 so it incorporates this year's Winter Olympics but not the recent Commonwealth Games.

Two skiers and a top fast bowler make up this year's nominations for the Speight’s Sportsman of the Year award. BLACKCAP Neil Wagner is back for the second year running joined by world class skiers, Beau-James Wells, who had a great year topped with a fourth at the Winter Olympics, and Adam Hall was at his best again, taking a gold and silver at the Winter Paralympics.

Three finalists contest the NZME Sportswoman of the Year award. International cricketer and three-time winner of this award, Suzie Bates, and fellow White Fern Katie Martin is also in the finalists after a great year with the bat and always tidy behind the stumps. They are joined by World Champion paddle boarder Annabel Anderson from Wanaka.

Snowsports have taken two spots of the three for the Otago Community Trust Coach of the Year. Ben Adams coached Adam Hall and Corey Peters to medals at the Winter Paralympic Games, along with the Snow Sports NZ High Performance Park and Pipe Coaching Team who have been nominated as a group who demonstrate a holistic way of coaching and a first for this award. They are joined by BLACKCAPs coach Mike Hesson.

It is an amazing group of young women that will contest the Mercy Hospital Junior Sportswoman of the Year award; Winter Olympic bronze medalist Zoi Sadowski Synnott will be challenged by a young netballer and cricketer Kate Heffernan, along with the New Zealand Women’s downhill champion Alice Robinson.

The Junior Sportsman of the Year category is full of fresh faced young lads. Slopestyle and halfpipe snowboarder, Tiarn Collins, is joined by Winter Olympics bronze medalist Nico Porteous, and up and coming rugby and sevens superstar, Vilimoni Koro.

In the Otago Daily Times Team of the Year category this year, all three finalists won national titles. The teams contesting the coveted title are the Southern United futsal team, the Southern Steel netball team, and another winter sport on ice, the Southern Stampede ice hockey team.

Last year's winner Chris Gaffaney is back to defend his 2017 Official of the Year title. He will be joined by another of last year's finalists, netball umpire and rugby referee Jono Bredin, and Dunedin Roller Derby Referee, Callum Tanner, who has recently officiated at the World Cup in the United Kingdom.

The winners will be announced at a gala dinner at the Dunedin Town Hall on Friday 18 May 2018. The Otago Polytechnic Services to Sport and University of Otago Innovation in Sport awards will also be presented. Guest speaker at the event will be double Olympic gold medalist and four-time rowing World Champion, Eric Murray and there will be a special tribute to five-time ASB Supreme winner Hamish Bond, who will be present on the night.

ASB Head of Community, Sponsorship and Events Mark Graham says ASB is proud to once again support the ASB Otago Sports Awards. “We’ve been involved in the ASB Otago Sports Awards since 2006 and it continues to be a highlight for us. Year after year, it’s great to see so many Otago locals performing exceptionally at national and international levels, and it’s a privilege to help recognise those achievements,” Mr Graham says. “Congratulations to all finalists at the 2018 ASB Otago Sports Awards,” Mr Graham says.

The ASB Otago Sports Awards are organised by Sport Otago to recognise and celebrate excellence in sporting achievement in the province. The judging panel is: Megan Gibbons (Otago Polytechnic), Craig Cumming (NZME), Steve Hepburn (ODT), Dean Horo (High Performance Sport New Zealand), and John Brimble (Sport Otago). The qualifying period was 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

ENDS