Zimpapers Logo

Charles Manyuchi

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
SPORTS enthusiasts will have to wait a bit longer for the much-awaited Annual National Sports Awards which were scheduled for this month in Harare as they have been postponed to next year.

The ceremony was set for December 14 but the Sports Commission yesterday announced that the ceremony will now be held on January 20, 2017.

“The Sport and Recreation Commission (SRC) wishes to advise that the ANSA ceremony has been postponed from 14 December 2016 to 20 January, 2017.

“The postponement was necessitated by a number of reasons such as the non-availability of some of the guests that were targeted to grace the occasion.

“And most of the national sport associations had indicated that their athletes and officials were not going to be available during the initially set date,” read part of a statement released yesterday.

Sports Commission director business development and marketing, Daniel Kuwengwa, said they reached the decision after consulting with the stakeholders involved in organising the awards.

“After consulting with the stakeholders involved with the organisation of the ANSA ceremony, we decided to defer the hosting of the ceremony from 14 December 2016 to 20 January 2017 in Harare.

“However, all the other preparations and processes remain unchanged serve for the unveiling of the nominees which will now take place on 13 January.

“On behalf of the SRC board management and staff I would like to thank all stakeholders especially Delta Corporation for their understanding and hopefully the ceremony will be a huge success,” said Kuwengwa.

The annual national sports awards are held every year to honour and celebrate outstanding achievements by the sports persons.

Body-builder, Helen Sinclair Costa is the reigning sportsperson of the year.

Athletes and officials will be vying for awards in 17 categories including the sportsperson of the year, team of year, junior sportsperson of the year, sportsman and sportswoman of the year with a disability among others.

Some of the names likely to come up for the awards include, boxer, Charles Manyuchi, who defended his WBC silver welterweight title in May when he beat Russia’s Dmitry Mikhaylenko.

Manyuchi was crowned Sportsperson of the Year in 2014.

The Under-21 netball team also had a fruitful year qualifying for the 2017 World Youth Championships.

In football the Warriors qualified for the 2017 African Cup of Nations in Gabon while the Mighty Warriors were recently in Cameroon for the Women African Cup of Nations. Earlier in August, the Mighty Warriors became only the second team sport after the 1980 hockey side to represent Zimbabwe at the Olympic Games when they took part at the Rio Olympics in Brazil.

Categories: Junior Sportswoman of the Year, Junior Sportsman of the Year, Junior Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability, Junior Sportsman of the Year with a Disability, Sportsman of the Year, Sportswoman of the Year, Coach of the Year, Technical Official of the Year, Sports Administration Award, Development Award, Sportsman of the year with a Disability, Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability, Junior Sportsperson of the Year, Sportsperson of the Year, Team of the Year, Women and Sport of the year Award and Special Acknowledgement Award.