Water polo and martial arts were amongst the winners at the Wits Sports Awards on Wednesday morning.
The awards, which were supposed to take place last year, were postponed due to #FeesMustFall protests.
The ceremony was attended by students and sports representatives from different clubs such as Wits Cricket head coach, Garnett Kruger, Wits Hockey sports officer, Erika Venter, and the senior manager of Wits Sports, Michael Dick.
“The Wits Sports Awards are the highlight of the year. Unfortunately, because of the #FeesMustFall last year, we couldn’t hold it. We are very happy that we were able to have a function to honour our elite athletes this year,”
“The Wits Sports Awards are the highlight of the year. Unfortunately, because of the #FeesMustFall last year, we couldn’t hold it. We are very happy that we were able to have a function to honour our elite athletes this year,” said Venter.
The top winners of the year include Sportsman of the Year, Kim Lucas for Tang Soo Do and Sportswoman of the Year, Emma Hardham for water polo.
Hardham, who was not present to accept her award, represented SA at the 2016 Commonwealth Games, scoring 20 points while at the games. Hardham has also earned provincial recognition as a finalist in the Gauteng sports awards in the category for Most Promising Athlete of the Year for 2016.
Lucas has been the winner of five senior national titles at SA championships and has been selected to represent Team South Africa at the World Martial Arts Games.
Junior U/21 Sportswoman of the Year, Nomnikelo Veto, a hockey player, was in high spirits as she told Wits Vuvuzela that she represented the U/21 SA team at the Hockey World Cup Qualifying Tournament 2016.
“I do feel like we were deserving and it’s really a big honour. We are very grateful”
The Sports Club of the Year was awarded to the Tang Soo Do club. “It’s very exciting that we won the 2016 Sports Club of the Year award and we have no doubt that we are deserving of it. We worked really, really hard,” said club treasurer and Wits civil engineering alumnus, Michael Shrenk.
The Wits martial arts team scooped 38 medals at the South African Combat Tang Soo Do and Haedong Kumdo Championships last weekend.
“We raised a lot of funds to help our club travel the country and we had a big team representing South Africa at the World Martial Arts games. So I do feel like we were deserving and it’s really a big honour. We are very grateful,” said Shrenk.
Shrenk added that the team was looking forward to starting the 2017 season and gaining some wins.
“We hope that this year is going to be good year. We are very confident because of a lot of the wins from 2016. We are hoping that the mentorship approach will really bolster our efforts in getting a lot more awards this year,” he said.
A number of recipients were not present to collect their awards as they had other commitments.