Sports

ANSA awards dates set

Tirivashe Nheweyembwa

Davison Bhunu, Sports Reporter

THE dates for this year’s Annual National Sports Awards (ANSA) nominees have been set for January 22 while the main function will be held a week later.

This follows a re-schedule of the awards that were supposed to be held in December last year but were postponed because the event’s organisers, the Sports Commission, wanted to appoint a new judges panel.

The Sports Commission have since appointed a new judges panel to preside over the awards with veteran sport broadcaster Steve Vickers chairing the panel.

The country’s supreme sports body’s communications officer Tirivashe Nheweyembwa said the awards nominees have already been submitted and are going to be unveiled on January 22.

Advertisement

“The nominees for the 2019 awards have already been submitted and they are going to be unveiled on January 22 at a sports briefing,” said Nheweyembwa.

The Sports Commission are yet to announce the venue for awards function that were last held at the Harare International Conference Centre in March 2019.

The new annual national sports awards judge panel now includes Vickers, Joyce Kapota and veteran journalist Lovemore Dube who are looking forward to make improvements and coming up with the best sports-persons list following the introduction of the performance tracking system by the Sports Commission.

“We hope the introduction of a performance tracking system by the Sports Commission will see a reduction in the number of deserving athletes not being nominated for the awards,” Vickers recently told our sister paper The Sunday Mail.

Previous winners of the national awards include current Minister of Youth, Sports and Recreation Kirsty Coventry, karateka Wilfred Mashaya, Margaret Bangajena and Elliot Mujaji, among others.

The awards, aimed at recognising and celebrating the highest sporting accomplishments by local athletes, technical officials and administrators, have been sponsored by Delta Beverages and the Government through the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Recreation.

The Sports Commission are still pursuing other sponsors for the annual awards.

“Delta and the Government, through the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Recreation, are on board but we are still pursuing other sponsors,” said Nheweyembwa.

HERALD

Advertisement