Top women's, girls sports performers to be announced

BALLARAT’S sportsgirl and sportswoman of the year for 2024 will be announced next week.

Four finalists in each of the categories have been named: Sara Kennedy (cricket), Quinn Moore (mountain biking), Armani Anderson (track) and Addy Ryan (lawn bowls) in the youth category; and Katrina Werry (rowing), Kathryn Mitchell (javelin), Alanna Peart (race walking) and Sophie Kurzman (lawn bowls) in the women’s section.

Werry’s nomination follows hard on the heels of her win last month in the Ballarat Sportsmen’s Club’s Sportsperson of the Year award, the fourth time she has done so.

Kennedy’s efforts on the cricket field saw her take out the Junior Sportsperson of the Year award the same night.

World record-breaking endurance swimmer Tammy van Wisse will be the guest speaker for the event, which will take place from 6.30pm next Thursday at the North Ballarat Sports Club in Creswick Road.

Kathryn Mitchell placed seventh in javelin at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Other awards to be presented on the night are the Sports Administrator Award, the Blackbourn Encouragement Award and the Spirit of Sport Award.

Thursday’s event will be the 49th instalment of the awards, which are designed to support and recognise efforts and achievements by girls and women in sport.

They are presented by the Ballarat Sportswomen’s Association, a group formed in the early 1970s as a spinoff of the Ballarat Sportsmen’s Club.

Association president Anne Jones said the awards night will be open to anyone who wants to attend, and those interested should contact her on 0407 356 802 to secure a place.

Ms Jones said finalists – and eventual winners – are determined through a process of examining their efforts and achievements in the previous year, in this case 2024.

Lawn bowler Sophie Kurzman has earned national selection.

Performances at international, national and state levels are the primary considerations, she said.

Van Wisse’s long list of achievements includes winning the Lake Zurich Swim in 1990; swimming the English Channel in 1993 in a time of eight hours, 35 minutes and again in 1994 in a time of eight hours, 33 minutes; and swimming the Murray River in 2001 (a distance of 2438 kilometres).

In July 2006 she broke an 81-year-old record (held by Gertrude Jacobs Ederle) for the 35-kilometre swim from New York City to Sandy Hook.

Van Wisse now works as an environmentalist and a motivational speaker.