NSW Sport Awards: 4 finalists for Athletics NSW

25 October 2023

NSW Sport Awards: 4 finalists for Athletics NSW

Athletics NSW has been recognised with finalists in four categories of the prestigious 2023 Sport NSW Awards announced recently.

Named as finalists were the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, coach Matt Horsnell and athletes Mali Lovell and Delta Amidzovski. Our event, coach and athletes are announced in very esteemed company including Swifts’ coach Briony Akle, GWS coach Adam Kingsley and Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, coach of slalom paddler Jessica Fox who this year won her 10th World title and an array of world junior champions and an AFL All Australian player.

Event of the Year – World Cross Country

The World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst in March was one of the NSW Government’s ‘10 World Cups in 10 Years’ program. The event, twice delayed by COVID, was an extraordinary success. The global event, broadcast live on SBS television was embraced by elite athletes from 48 countries, groups of teams from clubs and schools across Australia, along with masters athletes and community joggers. The 2656 athletes from 48 countries flocked to Bathurst where 420 volunteers and a local community hosted the event making all countries welcome with retail businesses and companies dressing up their shop fronts and premises to celebrate the participating countries.

The event has strong competition for the award from the FIBA Basketball Women's Asia Cup and a few annual events including the GIO Oz Day 10k Wheelchair race.

Young Athlete of the Year with a Disability - Mali Lovell

Another NSW finalist, primarily from her performance in a global event, is sprinter Mali Lovell. A teenager and on debut in the Australian uniform, Mali won silver in the T36 200m at the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris where 103 countries competed. A community minded person Mali raises funds for charity including the Cerebral Palsy Alliance this year.

Mali has strong competition from swimmer Amelia Moore who won 12 medals at the Global Games, Arato Katsuda-Green, an 11-year-old tennis player, Rower Harrison Nichols who is a member of NSW’s Pathway Eights crew and was selected for the Australian team in the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four squad. Also in the field of finalists is netballer Mackenzie Wills, a member of NSW’s Marie Little Shield team and beach sprinter Sara Bergen from Coffs Harbour.

Coach of the Year - Matt Horsnell

Central Coast coach Matt Horsnell enjoyed another extraordinary year in 2023, guiding Nicola Olyslagers to bronze at the world championships, second at the Diamond League final and raising of the Australian high jump record to 2.03m. He also coaches an elite and emerging squad of primarily jumpers.

But he is named a finalist in what must be the most competitive category. He is up against Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, coach of slalom paddler Jessica Fox who this year won her 10th World title, GWS’s Adam Kingsley named the AFL Coaches Association senior coach of the year and Swift’s netball coach Briony Akle who guided her team to runner up this year in the Suncorp Super Netball competition.

Young Athlete of the Year - Delta Amidzovski

Wollongong’s Delta Amidzovski is a finalist in the Young Athlete of the Year category after a year when she won two gold medals at the Commonwealth Youth Games and broke one of Sally Pearson’s National hurdle records. She also has an extraordinarily tough category when you look at the calibre of other nominees. She is against 19-year-old Cronulla surfer Jarvis Earle, the 2023 World Junior champion; 21-year-old Swans player, Errol Gulden, named in the 2023 All-Australian team; Olivia Wunsch who won four medals at the World Junior Swimming Championships and

Conner Maggs who made his debut in the Nutri-Grain Series last summer.

Best wishes to Matt, Delta and Mali and congratulations on the esteemed company you now keep as finalists in the Sports NSW awards.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: World Cross Country Championships (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)