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Grace Chingoma
Senior Sports Reporter
AS expected, the Annual National Sports Awards will not be held this year after sport was decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was announced yesterday by Sports Commission chairman, Gerald Mlotshwa, during a virtual media briefing, on sport resumption.

Mixed martial artist, Themba Magorimbo, won the 2019 Sportsperson of the Year award, last year in January, at a lavish ceremony in Harare.

However, the Sports Commission will have some form of recognition for the few athletes, who managed to do well, on the international stage.

Top body-builder Regina Jonga won the Sportswoman of the Year.

The netball senior team, the Gems, who captured the imagination of the world with their fine performance at the Netball World Cup in Liverpool, England, in 2019, won the Team of the Year.

Their coach, Lloyd Makunde, took the Coach of the Year award.

“National Sports Awards, this year, regarding what happened last year, in other words 2020, for a simple reason that we had Covid, there were not too many tournaments, local and international, that our athletes, sports-persons, were able to compete in.

“What we are planning for, however, is a form of recognition, recognising those sports-persons, in their respective sports disciplines, it would be a virtual recognition.

“We are working on that and how best to have, as many people accessing it in a way that, obviously, befits, which is to recognise that there are sports and tournaments, that carried on last year.

“There were achievements, notwithstanding Covid-19, and it’s really the SRC saying well done, and naming the particular individuals,” said Mlotshwa.

Amidst the lockdown, a few athletes shone in their disciplines.

Zimbabwe international footballer, and Olympique Lyon forward, Tino Kadewere, has done well in his debut season in French Ligue 1, scoring crucial goals for the club.

Zimbabwe junior champion rider, Emmanuel Bako, in October won the 85cc Pro-Mini Class, during the seventh round of the Inland Championship at Dirt Bronco, in Krugersdorp.

In January, Bako was triumphant in the 85cc (big wheel) Class in South Africa, in the opening round of the Inland Championships, in Johannesburg.

Zimbabwean athletes — Chengetayi “Du” Mapaya, Tinotenda Matiyenga and Kundai Maguranyanga — have also been doing well for Texas Christian University’s men’s track and field team in the United States.

Last month, 23-year-old broke Albert Sigele broke the Paralympic African record, in the middle distance race at the Dubai Grand Prix, posting the Tokyo Paralympic Games qualifying time.