The achievements of Team UniSA's outstanding sports people, volunteers, clubs and teams were celebrated on Tuesday evening at the 2021 UniSA Sport Awards night. Over 120 guests attended the ninth annual cocktail event, held at the National Wine Centre this year.
We were honored to have Australian Olympic cyclist and UniSA student, Alex Porter, join us as a guest speaker. Alex delivered an engaging and inspiring presentation, outlining his journey from cycling as a teenager to representing Australia at the Tokyo Olympics.
There was a strong field of nominees and finalists in all award categories. We would like to extend a huge congratulations to all our nominees and winners for 2021.
UniSA Swimming Club Head Coach and Vice President, Andrew Truong was awarded Volunteer of the Year, while the Hockey Club President for UniSA - Adam Bartrop took home Club Administrator of the Year.
Alex Porter, the three-time Team Pursuit World Champion who is currently studying a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting), Bachelor of Business (Finance) at UniSA received the Male Athlete of the Year award.
The Female Athlete of the Year award went to Australian Olympic rifle shooter, Katarina Kowplos who also represented Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Equestrian, Jessie Smith, who won the SA Medium Pony Reserve State Championship and the SA Country Dressage Festival was awarded the Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability.
The Club of the year award went to the UniSA Swimming Club, who experienced growth in both membership and participation as well as success in the pool over the past 12 months.
While the Team of the Year award when to the UniSA Men’s Soccer Collegiate A Team, who won the Division 3A Premiership this year resulting in a promotion to Div 2 in 2022.
The winner of the Georgie Rowe Outstanding Athlete of the Year award, which recognises an individual who demonstrates outstanding achievement as a player, administrator or volunteer and celebrates Georgie’s sporting achievements in perpetuity – was received by Olympic bronze medalist Alex Porter.
The following individuals received a Club Colours Award for their significant contributions to the development of their respective UniSA sport clubs:
- Zeeshan Patoli (UniSA Squash Club)
- Carmel Sutcliffe (UniSA Kung Fu Club)
- Katherine Simmons (UniSA Women’s Soccer Club)
- Emma Jager (UniSA Ultimate Club)
- Alexander Snow (UniSA Ultimate Club)
- Danielle Munn (UniSA Volleyball Club)
- Sasha Visari (UniSA Kung Fu Club)
- Amy Holman (UniSA Hockey Club)
- Jordie Parker (UniSA Swimming Club)
- Binh Tran (UniSA Shodokan Aikido Club)
- Tom Bereny (UniSA Shodokan Aikido Club)
- Lian Tran (UniSA Shodokan Aikido Club)
- Ishika Mahajan (UniSA Tennis Club)
The Half Blues Awards were taken home by two students who achieved sporting success at state or national representative level whilst also contributing to university sport. Congratulations to Emilaya Ellis, who received a silver medal in the Triple Jump at UniSport National Athletics and Toshiharu Nakao, who received a bronze medal at the Australian Judo National Championships.
Due to the travel restrictions associated with COVID-19, there were no opportunities for UniSA students to meet the criteria for a Blues Award this year.
Finally, three 2020 UniSport Australia Awards were also presented at this year’s Awards night to UniSA recipients, following UniSport Australia’s announcement of the winners in May 2021. Congratulations to Caitlin Adams who received 2020 UniSport Australia Female Athlete of the Year, Dougy Howard who was awarded 2020 Most Outstanding Contribution by a Student Volunteer and the UniSA Men’s Cycling Team who won 2020 Team of the Year.
The 2021 VC Cup was also presented at the event to the overall winning unit, UniSA Allied Health & Human Performance.
View photos from the night here.
We congratulate and thank all who contributed to UniSA Sport this year and look forward to seeing everyone in 2022.