MORE than 30,000 people took the time to sit down and cast their votes as the Western Advocate Sports Awards wrapped up last week, and a broad cross-section of sports and achievements drew recognition.
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While Jodie Simson was an overwhelming winner in both the Junior Sportsperson of the Year and Best State Performance categories, there were some surprises in the other divisions.
In addition to her Senior Sportsperson of the Year awards, triathlete Tamsyn Moana-Veale picked up the Best International Performance award for her top-10 finish at a pre-Olympic World Cup meeting in Europe where she mixed it with some of the best athletes on the planet.
That effort was easily enough for her to out-point Mark Renshaw for international performances.
Bathurst hockey duo Tamsin Lee and Rachel Miller were nominated together for the Best National Performance after playing for the national title-winning NSW Arrows, and that win was good enough to earn them just over 60 per cent of the votes in their category.
Cricketer Trent Copeland fared next-best, attracting 22 per cent, but it was a runaway win ultimately for the hockey duo.
Simson’s state level win came thanks to an incredible 91.5 per cent of votes for that particular division, or 10,916 in all.
The most closely contested category was the Best Local Performance award, and it went to golfer Jarryd Bird in a narrow win over another triathlete in Nick North.
Bird claimed a win in the Wentworth Open among a host of other strong results last year, and he and North between them claimed over 94 per cent of votes.
In the end, only 194 votes separated them.
Early on, the Junior Team of the Year award looked like being one of the most closely fought-out, but in the end the Astley Cup win by Bathurst High School built a big advantage and it continued to grow throughout the voting period.
They claimed 64 per cent of votes, ahead of the Bathurst Goldminers junior teams on 17.
The Senior Team of the Year was the St Pat’s men’s Premier League Hockey side after their memorable win over Lithgow Panthers in the grand final, and their win was similarly hard-earned in the awards process.
The CSU Mungoes were also prominent, but their 22.1 per cent of votes fell just short of Pat’s’ 29.7.
All five nominees were above 13 per cent.
Motorsport mentor Mike Reedy brained his opposition in the Coach of the Year category, gaining 52.5 per cent of votes.
Pat’s hockey coach Jaden Ekert and basketball’s Kieran Purvis were on 21 and 20 per cent respectively.
Predictably, the Bathurst 1000 picked up the Event of the Year award, though the Adelaide vs Newcastle A-League match was a good performer with 25.7 per cent of the votes cast.