• Other

Ishitile rectified as Sport Star of the Year

• 1 Month Ago 26 November 2024

The Namibia Sports Commission (NSC)’s Namibia Annual Sports Awards, held on Friday, faced controversy after cyclist Vera Looser was mistakenly announced as the Sports Star of the Year.

It has now been confirmed that the rightful recipient of the prestigious award is Para-athlete Lahja Ishitile, who was also honoured as the Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability.

Looser and Francois Marais (Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year, respectively), Ishitile and Petrus Karuli (Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year with a disability) had won their categories with prize money of N$100 000 each attached.

However, an extra N$200 000 is up for grabs in the Sport Star of the Year category.

The NSC yesterday issued a formal media statement addressing the mishap, attributing the embarrassing mistake to “technical errors by our auditors, Hamilton and Partners”.

“We take full responsibility for this lapse and extend our heartfelt apologies,” the NSC added.

Further concerns were raised over accessibility issues at the ceremony, as no wheelchair ramp was provided for disabled athletes to access the stage. Specifically, wheelchair athlete Paulus Frans was called up to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, but was unable to get onto the stage. Instead, deputy sports minister Emma Kantema-Gaomas and the NCF chairman Cilas Wilders stepped down from the stage to hand him his blazer.

“This oversight is unacceptable, and we are committed to ensuring that all athletes have equal access in future events.

Additionally, technical glitches caused interruptions during some nominees’ profiles of sporting achievements on the big screen (once again, including Frans), adding to the event’s challenges.

The NSC has committed to rectifying these issues for future events to uphold fairness and inclusivity in recognising Namibia’s sporting talent.

Ishitile’s remarkable year included a gold medal win in the 400 metres T11 category at the Paralympic Games in Paris, with a Games record-breaking time of 56.20 seconds. She is also the first para-athlete since Ananias Shikongo (in 2016) to win the Sports Star of the Year prize at the Sports Awards. On Friday, she also received the NSC Chairperson’s Award of Excellence.

Vera Looser secured the Sportswoman of the Year award after winning the UCI Marathon Mountain Biking World Cup series of three events in Czech Republic, France and USA. Looser also won the Sport Star category last year.

Strangely though, she was not a nominee for the Sports Star category this year, as clarified by the NSC. The finalists in this category were cyclist and mountain biker Alex Miller, long jumper Lionel Coetzee, archer Jannie Meuwesen and Ishitile.

Eyebrows were already raised on Friday when the awards function started two hours later than the scheduled 18:00.

During the course of the program, Tim Ekandjo of prominent sponsor MTC announced that N$200 000 will be handed over to the Sport Commission’s office as a celebration of twenty years of Annual Sports Awards functions.

“I would like to congratulate all the winners, but especially those who did not win tonight. Celebrating sports is not just about the winners, but those who are aspiring to be winners,” Ekandjo said in his speech.

“We would like to show our appreciation by gifting the Sports Commission with an amount of N$200 000. This amount is not for you to go and give athletes and sports federations; we would like the Sports Commission staff to go out and celebrate so that the next twenty years can be much better,” he added.

The Sports Commission has apologised to all stakeholders impacted by the oversights, reiterating its commitment to ensuring an error-free and inclusive awards process in the future.