Star athletes contend for top state sports awards

CYCLING’S strong representation in the two prestigious high-performance categories at the 2025 Victorian Sport Awards is a win for Bendigo.

Riding high after stellar 2025 seasons, Blake Agnoletto has been named a finalist for the Frank Wilkes Award, after winning the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic, while Austral Wheelrace winner Alessia McCaig is among the contenders for Kitty McEwan Award.

The young duo are among 72 finalists across 18 categories viewing for honours at the awards, which will be presented at a gala dinner at the MCG on Wednesday, 13 May.

Bendigo athletes feature heavily on the nominations list.

Homegrown NBA star Dyson Daniels is also a contender for the Frank Wilkes Award, which recognises a Victorian individual male athlete who has achieved outstanding results in respect to performances at a national or international level in the male category during the 2025 year.

World championship-winning athlete Milanke Haasbroek is a finalist in the young athlete of the year.

The announcement of finalists last week came only a few short weeks after Daniels beat out Agnoletto and McCaig for the top honour at the Bendigo Sports Awards.

Only the second Australian to make an NBA All-Defensive First team, Daniels created more history during the 2024-25 season as he led the league with 202 steals at an average of 3.1 per game.

 

Representing the Atlanta Hawks, he became the youngest player in NBA history to record 200+ steals in a single season while his stats compared to the previous season jumped from 5.8 points to 14.1 per game, 1.4 steals to 3.1 per game, 3.9 rebounds to 5.9 per game and 2.7 assists to 4.4 per game.

Those achievements helped him earn the NBA Most Improved Player Award as well – another first for an Australian.

Standing in his way of the Frank Wilkes Award are respected sailor Mark Bulka, snowboarder Scotty James and Agnoletto, whose victory in Australia’s longest one-day race, the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic, during wild windswept conditions was the standout of his 2005 accomplishments.

Agnoletto also claimed the Stage 2 victory in the ProVelo Super League, while at the Oceania Track Championships, he won gold in the elite men’s elimination race and silver in the elite men’s madison to showcase his talent both on road and track.

As part of the men’s team at the Track World Championships in Santiago, Blake earned a silver medal and claimed another title in the team pursuit at the UCI Nations Cup in Konya.

McCaig’s nomination among the finalists for the Kitty McEwan Award, which recognises a female individual athlete who has achieved outstanding results in respect to performances at a national and international level is no surprise.

Having been cycling since she was nine years old, she enjoyed the best year of her career to date in 2025.

At the national championships, she won gold in the sprint and keirin, while also earning first place in the Austral Wheelrace sprint, the oldest active track bicycle race.

 

At the Oceania Championships, she won a silver in the sprint and then reached the podium again at the UCI Track World Championships

in Santiago, with a bronze in the team sprint in addition to fourth place in the keirin.

She was eventually named AusCycling female track cyclist of the year for 2025.

The 22-year-old looks destined to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland later this year, after clinching her third straight national sprint/keirin double in Queensland last weekend.

Fellow Kitty McEwan contenders include Jemma Holt (life saving), Alanna Smith (basketball) and Tara Neyland (para-cycling).

A standout multi-discipline athlete across modern pentathlon and distance running, Haasbroek won under-13 titles in both the tetrathlon (swimming, obstacles, laser shooting and running) and laser run at the 2025 Australian Nationals.

In her first international competition, she claimed gold in the under-13 laser run at the World Championships in South Africa – a UIPM modern pentathlon discipline -becoming Australia’s first world champion in modern pentathlon.

Competing across multiple age categories, she also placed fifth in the under-15 biathle, eighth in the under-13 triathle, and secured silver in the under-17 mixed biathle relay, demonstrating exceptional versatility and the ability to perform against older international competition.

A class field of finalists for the young athlete of the year award includes Ballarat BMX star Josh Jolly, Jack Howell (paratriathlon), and Jonah Mercieca (diving).

The VSAs honour those who have made an exceptional contribution to sport in Victoria as individual or team athletes, coaches, officials, administrators, volunteers, media and clubs, as well as initiatives that have kept people active, from both metropolitan and regional areas in Victoria.

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