GALLERY: Top achievers honoured at SAB Sports Media Awards

The South African Breweries hosted the annual SAB Sports Media Awards 2015 on 24 November at the Wanderers Club in Illovo along with a panel of established judges in the the media industry.

The panel of judges announced the winners of the evening who have done well in sports coverage in South Africa during the year in front of a room filled with their peers and media personalities.

At this year’s ceremony, a new category called the Converged Media category was introduced where participants had to demonstrate stellar work in two or more of four categories while incorporating social media as a platform.

SAB head of corporate communications Robyn Chalmers said, “The SAB Media Awards have grown tremendously over the last few years. We have followed a very deliberate approach to ensure we continue to evolve the Awards in line with global and local developments in the media landscape. We are especially pleased with the entries we received under our new Converged Media category,” said Chalmers.

The notable winners who took awards home included Newcomer of the Year, Morena Muthupi; Sports Photographer of the Year, Anne Laing; Action Shot of the Year, Moeletsi Mabe; Video Media Award in sports news category, Junia Stainbank and Sports Personality of the Year, Wayde Van Niekerk.

Wheelchair racer and hand-cyclist, Ernst van Dyk was interviewed by radio talk show host David O’ Sullivan where he spoke about the challenges he faced being a disabled racer and what inspired him to excel in his passion for racing.

Another notable portion of the evening was a tribute for sports photographer Duif du Toit who passed away earlier this year. He was inducted into the Sports Media Hall of Fame.

“We at the SAB would like to recognise all the entrants who submitted work that grabbed the attention of their readers and our panel of judges. We congratulate our winners on their amazing achievement in this competition,” said Chalmers.