SA’s top stars compete for glory

(File image) Caster Semenya has been nominated for one of the top prizes at the 2012 South African Sports Awards.

(File image) Caster Semenya has been nominated for one of the top prizes at the 2012 South African Sports Awards.

Published Oct 5, 2012

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Johannesburg - The nominees in each of the 17 categories for the South African Sports Awards were announced in Johannesburg on Thursday evening.

The winners will be confirmed at the annual awards ceremony at the Sandton Convention Centre on November 4.

Cricketer Hashim Amla, who was the Sports Star of last year’s awards and played a key role in the Proteas’ participation in the World T20 International in Sri Lanka, is among the stars who will be voted for by the public through various mediums.

Amla faces stern competition from Paralympic gold medallist Natalie Du Toit.

Others are double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius - who this year made history by competing at both the Olympics and Paralympics - and the man who brought the country’s first gold medal at the Olympics, Chad le Clos.

Siyabonga Nomvete, Caster Semenya and Vernon Philander will also be in line for the main prize.

These are the athletes who made it into the Top Seven list for the Sports Star of the Year category voted for by ordinary South Africans.

Le Clos also finds himself competing with Cameron van der Burgh, Hashim Amla, Nomvete and Philander in the Sportsman of the Year category.

The nominees in the Sportswoman of the Year category as hockey captain Marsha Marescia, Caster Semenya, Olympic medallist Brigette Hartley and Portia Modise, who scored arguably the best goal of the Football Olympic Tournament.

The adjudication panel will also find it hard to choose their overall winner in the Coach of the Year category. The nominees are national cricket coach Gary Kirsten, Banyana Banyana’s Joseph Mkhonza, swimming coach Graham Hill, former Moroka Swallows coach and current Bafana Bafana mentor Gordon Igesund, and Stormers coach Allister Coetzee, who took the team to the final of the Super 15.

Sportsman of the Year with a Disability is a tight race between Oscar Pistorius (athletics), Charl Bouwer (swimming), Lucas Sithole (wheelchair tennis), Arno Fourie (athletics) and Samkelo Radebe (athletics).

Around 1 500 guests are scheduled to attend the big night on November 4 in Johannesburg. - Sapa

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