The Ottawa Sports Awards Dinner honouring the capital’s best in amateur sports for 2011 on Wednesday, Jan. 25 will feature a radical change.
It’s not a major switch in format to the 59th-annual edition of the event that welcomes over 400 guests to Algonquin College, but for the first time since 2005, retired speed skater Kristina Groves will not be the city’s female athlete of the year.
“It certainly will be a bit strange not to hear her name at the end of the evening,” says Ottawa Sports Awards chair Doug Scorrar. “Not that there weren’t other great female athletic performances in past years, but Kristina was just such a consistently dominant force on the world stage that it was almost always a slam dunk decision for our committee.
“However, we are very pleased to see so many strong, young candidates emerge for this year’s award, and show that Ottawa’s female athletes are ready to follow in Kristina’s footsteps and continue to be a source of pride for our city.”
There are a large number of candidates who own top-notch resumes for female athlete of the year.
In just their first year out of the junior ranks, Rachel Homan led her Ottawa Curling Club rink to a title at the highly competitive Ontario women’s championships and went on to place fourth at the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Ottawa Rowing Club member Kate Goodfellow helped Canada to an under-23 world championship, setting a new world record time for the category in the women’s eight event. The University of Ottawa student was also a U23 pairs national champion and a CIS silver medalist.
Christina Julien emerged as a starting striker alongside Christine Sinclair for the national women’s soccer team at the Pan Am Games, scoring two goals during Canada’s gold medal run in Guadalajara. Julien was also a member of the Canadian World Cup team and played for the W-League finalist Ottawa Fury during its undefeated W-League regular season.
And Ottawa Lions hammer thrower Sultana Frizell also enjoyed success on the international stage, winning a silver medal at the Pan Am Games against five of the world’s top-20 ranked athletes.
There are also some strong candidates for male athlete of the year, with bobsleigh world championships medalist Cody Sorensen, CIS outstanding athlete and Carleton Ravens national basketball champion Tyson Hinz, and Peter Garrett – an archery world champion in the 3D division – all in the running for the honour.
“We look forward to celebrating the accomplishments of all our amateur athletes in 2011 with the local sports community,” Scorrar adds. “We are always so pleased to honour people who devote tremendous amounts of energy to their sports, often for very little recognition.”
The Ottawa Sports Awards banquet honours the top athletes in over 60 individual sports, along with teams that have won provincial championships or higher, and also presents major awards to athletes, teams and coaches of the year.
Along with the club of the year honour – which will be shared by the Ottawa Fury soccer club and the Ottawa Lions track-and-field club – the recipients of the Sports Awards lifetime honours have been unveiled in advance of the Dinner.
John Leroux (volunteer or administrator), Jim Ward (technical official), Don Lyon (coach) and Carolyn Waldo (media) will all be recognized for lifetime achievements, while retiring Ottawa District Hockey Association executive director Rick Sennott will receive the Mayor’s Cup for outstanding contribution to sport in Ottawa for his 52 years of dedication to the greater community through volunteerism and his career work.