CHARLOTTE KEURIS
International
2011 Laureus World Sport Awards
The sports year kicked off with the annual Laureus World Sport Awards in Abu Dhabi on Monday 7 February. It was no surprise that this year’s World Sportsman of the Year award went to Rafael Nadal after he won three Grand Slam events in 2010. Spain was further honoured when the Spanish Football Team won the World Team of the Year award for their victory at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The World Sportswoman of the Year award went to skier Lindsey Vonn from America. Another American who won this year was surfer Kelly Slater. Slater was awarded the World Action Sportsperson of the Year for the third time. It seems no one can stop Slater as he recently won the World Surfing Championships for a record breaking tenth time.
While South Africa didn’t win any awards this year, golfer Louis Oosthuizen was nominated for the World Breakthrough of the Year award. This is the same award that Rafael Nadal won in 2006.
National
Bakkies the Lion?
It seems that the Golden Lions are now targeting Bakkies Botha for their major signing in 2012. Bakkies’ contract with the Vodacom Blue Bulls ends in October this year and it was thought that he would then get picked up by the French club Toulon. However, Sport24 sources in France have confirmed that Bakkies wishes to end his career in South Africa and will not be joining Toulon. Furthermore, Bakkies has not shown interest in renewing his Blue Bull contract. The Blue Bulls will also be losing other key players such as Fourie du Preez, Danie Rossouw and Victor Matfield.
The Sharks captain, John Smit, also caused a stir recently when he posted a photo on Twitter. In the photo Smit is wearing a cap that says “I love BJ” and several of his Twitter followers asked him who or what the cap referred to. Smit quickly replied that the BJ on the cap referred to Butch James and that he received the cap at a party held by James. Nice save Smit.
