Nominations for AJ (Tood) Buswell Sports Star of the Year now open

Nominations for the South Western Times’ AJ (Tood) Buswell Sports Star of the Year award are now open. Run in conjunction with the City of Bunbury’s Bunbury Geographe Sports Awards, the honour is designed to recognise the region’s most outstanding athlete over the course of the previous calendar year. Nominations can be submitted to the sport@swtimes.com.au email address and must include the nominee’s name, age, base location, sport, and a brief summary including their achievements with a maximum of 150 words. The award — which is the longest-running of its kind in WA, having been inaugurated in 1960 — is named in the honour “Tood” Buswell, the patriarch of one of the region’s famous sporting families and a long-time player and administrator at South Bunbury Football Club. A number of other awards will be handed out on the night, including the Myles Juniors Sports Star of the Year, Para-Athlete of the Year, Team of the Year, Official of the Year, Coach of the Year, Service to Sport – Volunteering and Event/Program of the Year. Surfer Jack Robinson took out last year’s headline prize after registering two championship tour victories and claiming the sport’s number one world ranking, while other award winners included Burekup young gun mountain biker Connor Wright (Myles Juniors Sports Star of the Year) and Roelands volleyballer Brad Barclay (Para-Athlete of the Year). Other recent winners include West Coast defender Brady Hough (Harvey) and star jockey Damian Lane (Bunbury). Applications will close on April 18, with finalists announced on April 25 before the awards night on May 10.