Hunt on for local sport high achievers

This year’s annual Goldfields Sports Star of the Year Awards on November 16 at Kalgoorlie Town Hall will mark the long-running event’s debut on a Saturday night.

Since the awards were resurrected in 2002 after an absence of nearly 20 years, the presentation has been on a Friday night but has been moved to avoid a clash with various summer sports.

Sports star committee chairman Tony Crook said he hoped the move would generate more nominations for each of the six categories and enable more people to attend on the night.

Crook, a former Federal MP and Kalgoorlie-Boulder Racing Club chief executive, has led the committee since 2021.

This year’s nominations cover the sporting period from October 1, 2023 to September 29, 2024, and must be lodged by 5pm on October 4.

Presentations will be made to the sport star of the year, rising star, service to sport, masters sport star, team of the year and person with a disability.

Hockey player Tess Rowling’s emergence as an outstanding goalkeeper at State and national level earned her last year’s sport star award.

She was the No.1 goalkeeper for WA Country at the national championships and was later named in the Australian under-21 country team to play overseas.

Terence Morton’s standing as one of Australia’s best emerging darts players earned him the 2023 rising star award after being named to the national under-18 team for a major event in Europe.

The gala evening includes the 2024 inductees into the Goldfields Sporting Hall of Fame.

The inaugural 2005 Hall of Fame class remains the biggest number of inductees with eight that included billiards champions Walter Lindrum and Bob Marshall and Olympians Terry Walsh (hockey) and Vanessa Ward (nee Browne, athletics).

Ward grew up in Norseman and rose to prominence by attending Friday night meetings in Kalgoorlie-Boulder at the Eastern Goldfields Little Athletics Association.

She went on to claim five national women’s high-jump championships and represented Australia at the Los Angeles (1984) and Seoul (1988) Olympic Games.

Cycling champion Paul Miller was the 1986 sports star winner who was inducted into the hall off fame in 2009.

In his prime, Miller was the 1988 Australian road racing champion, rode professionally in Europe and represented Australia at three consecutive world championships (1986-88).

Miller dedicated his hall of fame induction to his late father, who died two years earlier after a battle with prostate cancer.