Panel selects joint winners

WHEELCHAIR basketball ace Jontee Brown and lawn bowls champion Aaron Wilson are joint winners for September in Bendigo’s Sports Star of the Year award for 2023.

A member of the Australian Paralympic squad, Brown went to Italy with the Australian Rollers where the squad was third overall and he was named in the all-star team of five.

A big year for Brown included a championship victory with the Darwin Salties in the national championship and he was the season’s top scorer.

In the grand final, Brown scored 33 points and won nine rebounds.

Brown also played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Wheelchair Football League this season.

The Hawks defeated Richmond in the clash for the Robert Rose Foundation VWFL premiership cup by 65 points.

Among the career highs for Brown in wheelchair basketball have been a bronze medal at the world under-23 championships, and gold at national under-23 titles.

Brown is presently living in Canberra and training at the Australian Institute of Sport as he pursues his goal of competing at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

Meanwhile, dual winner of Bendigo’s Sports Star of the Year crown, Wilson continues to shine at the big events.

In September he competed at the World Bowls Championships on the Gold Coast where he teamed with Aaron Teys in the men’s pairs.

They claimed silver after an 11-19 result against Ireland’s Adam McKeown and Gary Kelly in the final.

Later in the titles, Wilson earned bronze in the singles and Australia again struck gold as the best performed country.

Wilson won gold in the men’s singles at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, and last year’s Games in Birmingham.