City of Rockingham recognises sports stars at awards night

Quad MX champion Luke Gaisford was named Senior Sports Star of the Year at the City of Rockingham Sports Star Awards gala at Gary Holland Community Centre last night.

Gaisford, the 2017 ATV national champion and a member of the Australian ATV Quad Cross of Nations team, beat Rockingham-Mandurah cricketer Dane Ugle, triathlete Steve Ware and Rockingham Flames star Maddison Allen to claim the prestigious award.

BMX Under-14 World Champion Callum Jordan claimed the Junior Sports Star of the Year gong for the second successive year, ahead of basketballer Luke Travers, sprinter Sophie White and hockey and baseball hotshot Jarod Crick.

Warnbro Swans integrated sports’ Wayne Hunt took out Volunteer of the Year, Rockingham Rugby Union Football Club was Club of the Year and Rockingham City Football Club U13s Metro Division 2 team was named Team of the Year.

The biggest cheer of the evening was reserved for Sports Person of the Year with Disability winner Michael Nvota.

Long-serving athletics coach Bob Chalmers was named John Brown Lifetime Achievement Memorial Award winner. The field in this award included Warren Boucaut, Brian Kennedy, Verne Klein and Harry Brankstone, with the quintet having a combined for 198 years service to sport in the region.

The awards had 57 nominations across seven categories, with athletes and clubs from a variety of sporting backgrounds represented in the final shortlist. All award nominees and winners shared more than $15,000 worth of prizes.

Mayor Barry Sammels also used to occasion to announce Rockingham had been selected to host the Special Olympics WA State Games in October 2019.

The games will be held from October 4-7 2019 and will welcome athletes from across WA as they compete to be crowned the best across 10 different sports.

Mr Sammels said the City was excited to be hosting the games for the first time.

“The City of Rockingham is proud to be a community that welcomes athletes from all sporting backgrounds and we are delighted to be hosting the 2019 Special Olympics WA State Games,” he said.

“Sport plays an important role in fostering mentally and physically healthy communities and the 2019 Special Olympics WA State Games gives us a great opportunity to support some of the best athletes with intellectual disability in their respective sports.”

Special Olympics Australia began in 1976 and has more than 3100 athletes competing in 18 different sports across the country – with about 300 athletes competing in WA.

Special Olympics WA events co-ordinator Cait McGowan said they were thrilled to be partnering with the City for the event.

“We are overjoyed by the support the City is providing and are even more excited to make this the best State Games yet,” Ms McGowan said.

Globally, Special Olympics is the largest sporting organisation in the world for people with intellectual disability, providing year round training and competition for 5 million athletes in 172 countries.