Geraldton Guardian Mid West Sports Awards celebrate 50 years, with new group of Hall of Famers to be inducted

Save the date — the 50th anniversary of the Geraldton Guardian Mid West Sports Awards is on, continuing its proud tradition of being the longest-running awards of its kind in regional Australia.

A date has been set and nominations will soon be open for the 50th edition of the awards.

Winners will be announced on Saturday, November 26 at Batavia Hall, with nominations set to open in mid-August.

They are the longest-standing sports awards in regional Australia and have more than 10 different categories recognising the outstanding contributions to sport in the Mid West.

Mid West Sports Federation chairman Mike Bowley was looking forward to big celebrations after a couple of difficult years with the pandemic and cyclone Seroja.

“We want to let everyone know that after a bit of a hiatus we are fully back this year,” he said.

“Our key focus is to promote, advocate and build sport across the region and these awards recognise the outstanding achievements of athletes, volunteers and teams.”

The association currently only has 10 sportspeople in its Hall of Fame, with the last being inducted in 2017 for boxer Anthony Little. But Mr Bowley said that would be changing at this year’s event.

“We will be inducting a new group into the Hall of Fame and while I can’t reveal who they’ll be, the recipients are all worthy inductees having represented at elite/international levels.”

Mr Bowley said the Federation was honoured to deliver the 50th edition of the awards.

“There’s been a lot of people that have gone before us and supported people over those 50 years,” he said.

“I’m really proud to be part of this small team that gets to deliver these awards and grow sport across the region.

“I also want to thank the Mid West Chamber of Commerce and Industry for moving their Business Excellence Awards dates so we can hold our celebration on the 26th.”