THE April monthly winners for the 2012 Leader-Tynan Honda Sportstar of the Year awards have been chosen. Readers are encouraged to nominate someone in the categories, including athletes with a disability, master, junior and senior and various team awards.
Juniors
Oliver Hoare followed in the footsteps of his world-champion father to win the Australian under-15s beach relay at the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships. The North Cronulla representative backed up his win at the state championships to take out the 2km national title.
Blake Toohey, 9, of Sutherland Little Athletics Club, won gold at the NSW multi-event Little Athletics Championships. It is the third consecutive year he's won the event. He also broke the point-scoring record.
Shayne Smith, of Kirrawee, was part of the NSW under-18s hockey side that went through the Australian Championships undefeated. NSW beat Victoria 5-3 in the final.
High-jumper Tomysha Clark broke the U9s Australian high-jump record at the NSW Little Athletic Championships. Clark, 9, a pupil at Kurnell Public, jumped 1.39m to beat the 1979 record by 0.8 metres.
Seniors
Ashlee Andukinoff won bronze in the 3000-metre women's individual pursuit at the World Track Cycling Championships in Melbourne. Andukinoff had to beat her Australian teammate, Tasmania's Amy Cure, to grab bronze.
Ben Hornby became the most capped St George, Illawarra or St George-Illawarra player of all time when he stepped onto the field for his 257th premiership game against Sydney Roosters. Hornby, who debuted in 2000, overtook St George great Norm Provan in the first-grade games tally.
Kaarle McCulloch, of Gymea Bay, came second with Anna Meares behind Germany's Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel in the women's team sprint gold at the World Track Cycling Championships. Meares and McCulloch came agonisingly close to a fourth straight title with 32.597 seconds — just short of the German's 32.549 seconds.
Sports club
NSW Academy of Gymnastics made NSW gym history when three teams won the levels 7, 8 and 9/10 events at the state gymnastics championships. No club had ever made a clean sweep at the competition before.
Masters
Cronulla Sutherland Kayak Club pair of Lorraine Harper-Horak and Dallas Newman won the Australian Canoe/Kayak Marathon Championships, in the women's K2 50+ class. As members of the NSW team they won gold by two minutes.
Junior team
Sutherland Shire Softball Association celebrated its under-11s T-Ball team winning the NSW Championship with a nail-biting victory against Georges River. It was the first time that the association had won an under-11s title and they defeated Georges River 10-9 in the final.
