Kurtis Marschall and Jess Trengove up for sports award

From quiet achievers to the stars of para and able-bodied athletics, a number of Australian athletes and participants across the country have been nominated for local and state sporting awards.

On the back of his rise to the Rio Olympic Games team in 2016, South Australian Kurtis Marschall continued to raise the bar in 2017 taking another step forward in his promising pole vault career.

Marschall is one of ten finalists named for The Advertiser’s South Australian Sport Awards alongside fellow world championships teammate Jess Trengove.

In August this year, Marschall finished seventh in the final of the IAAF world championships in a year which also saw the 20-year-old raise his personal best to 5.73m.

Trengove too cracked the top ten in London, after placing ninth in the women’s marathon in the fastest ever performance and the highest ever placing by an Australian woman at the world titles.

Click here to vote for Kurtis and Jess.

After bursting onto the Australian athletics scene after her performances at Nitro Athletics, young Queensland sprint star Riley Day has taken out Junior Sports Star of the Year at the Quest Community News and Gold Coast Bulletin Local Sports Star Awards.

The teenager from Beaudesert had a breakthrough year in 2017, taking two gold medals at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas, before making her Australian senior team debut at the 2017 world championships in London in the 200m.

Day is also nominated as one of seven finalists for the Queensland Government Junior Sport Star award.

Day will progress to the national final of the Local Sports Star Awards and face the NSW winner of the NewsLocal’s Junior Sports Star and Commonwealth Youth Games gold medallist Bendere Oboya, as well as Victorian winner of the Leader Junior Sports Star Award and para-athletics world champion Isis Holt.

Oboya took home two gold medals at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games in the 400m and the mixed 4x400m relay as she improved her PB in the past year by three seconds down to 52.69.

Holt, still just 16-years-old, avenged her Rio Paralympic silver medal at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London by winning gold medals in both the T35 100m and 200m.

Holt is also nominated for the ABC Sports Personality of the Year, as part of the annual AIS Sport Performance Awards. She shares a nomination with Sally Pearson, who was recognised after her stunning victory in the 100m hurdles at the 2017 world championships in London.

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The public are encouraged to vote for Isis and Sally by visiting aisawards.abc.net.au. Voting closes at 5pm AEDST, Sunday, December 10.

Pearson is also one of six finalists in the Queensland Academy of Sport Peter Lacey Award for Sporting Excellence.

London world championships silver medallist Dani Stevens has too put her name up among the best sportspeople in Australia after receiving a nomination as one of seven finalists for the Sport NSW Athlete of the Year.

Also nominated as part of the Sport NSW awards are wheelchair athlete Madison de Rozario (Athlete of the Year with a Disability), Erin Cleaver and Tamsin Colley (Young Athlete of the Year with a Disability).

Both Stevens and de Rozario are also nominated as finalists in the NSW Institute of Sport Female Athlete of the Year award.

Also in the running to take out an NSWIS award will be James Turner, who is nominated for the Male Athlete of the Year after his world championships gold medal performance in the men’s T36 200m, 400m and 800m.

Also nominated for NSWIS awards is University of Sydney pole vaulter Angus Armstrong (Academic Excellence Award), para-long jumper Sarah Walsh (Personal Excellence Award), and legend of Australian para-athletics Louise Sauvage (Coach of the Year).

In Canberra, world para-athletics champion in the F38 shotput and world record breaker Cameron Crombie is up for the People’s Sporting Champion at the CBR Sport Awards hosted by the ACT Government. You can vote for Cameron by clicking here.

Crombie's nomination comes as our para-athlete takes a clean sweep of the nominations in their category at the CBR Sports Awards. Crombie will be in the running for the Male Athlete of the Year - Para sports award against fellow London 2017 gold medallists, F38 javelin thrower Jayden Sawyer and T42 100m sprinter Scott Reardon.

At the Western Australian Institute of Sport, all-round junior star Sasha Zhoya picked up a nomination for the Junior Athlete of the Year award after setting a new world best height in the U16 boys in 2017. Also up for nomination at the WAIS awards is Sarah Edmiston, who won bronze in the F44 discus at the world para-athletics championships.

In Tasmania, T38 1500m world para-athletics champion and Australian record holder Deon Kenzie is up for the Mercury newspaper 2017 Tasmanian Athlete of the Year.

Other community awards include:

• Kate Abfalter has won the Moonee Valley Leader Newspaper Junior Sports Star.
• Jessie Andrew has won the Sunbury Leader Newspaper Junior Sports Star.
• Rachel Bardney has won the Rouse Hill Times Young Sporting Spirit.
• Donovan Bradshaw has won the North Shore Times Junior Sports Star.
• Nash Chandler has won the Manningham Leader Newspaper Young Sporting Spirit Individual.
• Simon Cook has been nominated for the Queensland Sport Administrator Award.
• Peter Crombie, long serving coach and member of Bankstown Athletics Club, was awarded the Sport NSW Community Coach of the Year after his great success with his masters athletes. Peter was also recognised by Sport NSW as a Distinguished Long Service Recipient.
• Adam Didyk has been nominated for the Sport SA Coach of the Year.
• Rachel Fisk has been nominated for the Sport SA Official of the Year.
• Conor Fry has won the Moonee Valley Leader Newspaper Senior Sports Star.
• Angus Hincksman is one of three primary school aged athletes in contention for the South Australian School Sports Award after breaking the Australian record for the T38 5000m.
• Anthony Jordan has won the Whitehorse Leader Newspaper Young Sporting Spirit Individual.
• Anna Kasapis has won the Hume Leader Newspaper Senior Sports Star.
• Jessica MacKenzie has won the Progress Leader Newspaper Junior Sports Star.
• Tia Rose Matthews has won the Blacktown Advocate Young Sporting Spirit.
• Maria McConville was recognised as a Sport NSW Distinguished Long Service Recipient after her long involvement with the Holyoyd Little Athletics centre.
• Stefan Nel has won the Mordialloc Leader Newspaper Junior Sports Star.
• The North Rocks Carlingford Little Athletics Centre took out the Sport NSW Community Club of the Year.
• Zachary Nunis has won the Maroondah Leader Newspaper Junior Sports Star.
• Edward Parker has won the Hornsby Advocate Young Sporting Spirit.
• Oscar Payne has won the Maroondah Leader Newspaper Young Sporting Spirit Individual.
• Stella Radford has won the Preston Leader Newspaper Senior Sports Star.
• Owen Rice has won the Progress Leader Newspaper Young Sporting Spirit Individual.
• Ron Stobaus, Keilor St Bernard’s Athletic Club head coach, has won the Victorian Leader Sports Service to Sport award.
• Neil Sutton has been nominated for the Queensland Sport Volunteer Award.
• Carley Thomas has won the Hills Shire Times Junior Sports Star.
• Nilesh Vaheesan has won the Greater Dandenong Leader Newspaper Junior Sports Star.

 If we’ve missed any local or state award winners or finalists, please get in contact with us here.