Chris Theko
Sports Xpress founded in 2012 will host the first annual sports xpress awards ceremony later this year as a way to honour the sports athletes who have done well in the past year.
The online sports paper was started with the aim to keep Basotho informed with sports activities and news. The founders then realized that there is a gap in awarding those who perform well in different sport codes hence the idea came about.
According to the founder Tumelo Mara, the aim was to have hosted the awards during the 2019/20 sporting year but that was disrupted by the Covid-19 outbreak.
“Initially, the aim was to have hosted the awards last year but that failed due to the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic which forced sports and other social gatherings to be halted.
“So as a result, with this particular ceremony we have decided to celebrate athletes from two seasons which is 2019/20 and 2020/21. This is where we will be honoring our athletes in and those playing outside the country to show that we care about them and they bring us joy and happiness through sport,” he said.
Mara stated that the awards will not only accommodate athletes but also the fans and those who have contributed to popularizing sports in the country.
The 14 categories were released a week ago and are made up of coach of the year, sports star of the year, life time achievement of the year amongst others.
It is no surprise that the only female who has qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games ‘Neheng Khoarahlane Seutloali dominates the list of nominees. She has been nominated for Best Sporting Moment, Sportswoman of the year and Sports Star of the Year.
Mara said the nominees and categories were set up in a way that tries to accommodate all sporting codes even those which have not been active in the past year.
“The awards are not just looking at the active sports codes currently but we looked at all of them and nominated the best performers.
The awards are expected to be hosted in October 2021 but the voting has already opened to the general public while the organizers say they are still open to the business community to partner with.
