Winter athletes and coaches feature prominently in the list of finalists for the annual Otago Sports Awards.
That is perhaps no surprise when the qualification period was highlighted by a Winter Olympics that delivered unparalleled success, mostly from Otago athletes.
Pioneering gold medallist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott is predictably one of three finalists for sportswoman of the year.
Snowboarding star Sadowski-Synnott, who added a silver medal for good measure, faces competition from two fellow finalists with compelling cases: triple motocross world champion Courtney Duncan and White Ferns cricket great Suzie Bates.
The sportsman of the year category perhaps lacks the equivalent star power but that might make it even harder to pick.
Tiarn Collins capped a fine season on the snowboarding slopes with a breakthrough world cup title, Braden Currie won another Coast to Coast, and Finn Butcher won silver at the world extreme slalom kayaking championships.
A prominent name is missing from that category: as he is still just 20, Nico Porteous is nominated for junior sportsman of the year.
Porteous, who won gold in the freeski halfpipe at Beijing, is joined by fellow finalists and Winter Olympians Gustav Legnavsky and Campbell Wright.
An Olympian also features in the junior sportswoman of the year category.
Erika Fairweather stunned the swimming community by making the 400m freestyle final at the Tokyo Olympics.
Other finalists in the category are world junior freeski slopestyle champion Ruby Andrews and New Zealand handball representative Annalise Wilson.
The Otago Daily Times-sponsored team of the year category is set to provide one of the intriguing battles of the night.
Finalists are the Hallyburtone Johnstone Shield-winning Otago Sparks, the well-performed Southern United women’s football team, and the Otago Whalers rugby league side that won the New Zealand Championship.
Coach of the year is a shootout between Sean Thompson, Tommy Pyatt and Brent Ward, respective coaches of Sadowski-Synnott, Porteous and Paralympic star Anna Grimaldi.
Fellow Tokyo gold medallist Holly Robinson will tussle with Grimaldi in a loaded para athlete/team of the year category alongside Winter Paralympic double bronze medallist Adam Hall.
Martin Toomey (snowsports), James Doleman (rugby) and Chris Gaffaney (cricket) are finalists for official of the year, and awards will be also be presented for services to sport and innovation in sport.
The awards have also introduced emerging talent categories.
Dylan Pledger (rugby and touch), Jacob Cumming (cricket) and James Gardner (cycling) contest the boys category, and Jorja Gibbons (athletics), Pipi Horan (rowing) and Isabel Watterson (skiing) are girls finalists.
Two Wakatipu High School rowing crews and the John McGlashan College curlers are finalists in emerging team of the year.
Judges for the Otago Polytechnic-sponsored awards are Sport Otago chief executive John Brimble, Otago Daily Times sports editor Hayden Meikle, Otago Polytechnic chief executive and athletics coach Megan Gibbons, radio producer Rowena Duncum and former long-serving Sport Otago manager Michael Smith.
The awards will be held on Friday, June 3 at the Otago Polytechnic Hub.
