That world champion Sivenathi ‘Special One’ Nontshinga was not deemed good enough to crack a nomination at last year’s Eastern Cape Sport and Achievement Awards despite being head and shoulders above all athletes in the province at the time still does not sit well with me.
Nontshinga won the International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-flyweight title after he defeated Mexican boxer Hector Flores in Hermosillo, Mexico, on 3 September 2022. And he went on to defend the title with a win over Filipino boxer Regie Suganob at the East London International Convention Centre (ICC) in July last year.
In between, the 25-year-old’s Nontshinga’s duel with Flores won the IBF Fight of the Year award in March last year. And then Nontshinga went on to win the Male Boxer of the Year award at the South African Boxing Awards function last June.
Still, the organisers of the Eastern Cape Sport and Achievement Awards felt that Nontshinga hadn’t done enough to be nominated for their gongs.
Thankfully, not everyone is myopic and malicious as those organisers as Nontshinga has proved to be a force to be reckoned with nationally.
That he is one of the three nominees for the Sportsman of the Year award at the South African Sport Awards is testament to his athletism as he is competing with canoeist Andrew Birkett and Springbok lock forward Eben Etzebeth for the gong.
With Nontshinga having been nominated nationally, now the joke is on the organisers of the Eastern Cape Sport and Achievement Awards.
The period under review for the awards is from 1 September 2022 until 31 August last year and the ceremony is going to be held in Sun City, Rustenburg, on Sunday, 5 May.
