Best of the best hailed at sports awards

Unlike previous years where one or two sports clubs would hog the limelight and the awards, this year's UCT Sports Awards, held on Saturday, 23 October, boasted a more equitable spread of accolades.

UCT Sportsperson of the Year, Laura Barrett, receives the Jamison Cup from Riaan Manser, guest speaker at the UCT Sports Awards.	Kings and queens: The chess and hockey teams   celebrate their joint win as UCT teams of the year.

Here's a rundown of the winners of the main categories:

• "Club of the Year - the Rowing Club, for overall good governance, sound financial management, value for money for its members, its social responsiveness initiatives, performance achievements and new initiatives.

• "Sports Award for Transformation - the Mountain & Ski Club, for a project in which it takes 20 grade-10 learners on outdoor excursions throughout the year; in 2010 the club also introduced a grade-11 group, specifically the 'graduated' grade-10 group of 2009.

• "The Turpin Cup for excellence and dedicated service to UCT - Brendon Gliddon, who's been involved with rowing for over 12 years, seven of these at UCT. Gliddon has coached the SACS eight to two back-to-back wins at the South African Schools Championships, has coached the UCT men's first eights for three years, and has been club president for two. He was instrumental in setting up the club's development programme, and has just been elected as president of University Sports South Africa Rowing.

• "Sports Award for Best First-Year Student - Amy Freakes, who was selected for the Western Province A senior hockey team, and earned a South Africa under-18 cap.

• "The Landstem Trophy for Performance of the Year (single performance) - Nicolaas Louw, who represented South Africa at the Commonwealth Judo Championships in Singapore in January, finishing third in the men's individual event. That made him South Africa's number one ranked competitor in the under-73kg weight class.

• "The Butterworth Trophy for Team of the Year - the chess and men's hockey clubs shared the honours. The Chess Club won the fiercely-fought Western Province Premier League, the club's first championship victory since 1992; while the men's hockey first team won the Western Province Grand Challenge for the first time since 2004, losing only one of its 16 matches.

• "The Jamison Cup for Sportsperson of the Year - Laura Barrett, captain of the UCT water polo team that won the WP winter and summer leagues. Barrett also led the Western Province A team to victory at the Currie Cup Nationals, and represented South Africa at the World League Championships in France and Greece.