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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
FINAL nominees for the Annual National Sports Awards (Ansa) will be unveiled today and adjudicators are set to have a torrid time coming up with the top three in the Team of the Year category ahead of the awards night on Friday.

The awards were postponed from December 14, 2016, due to logistical issues, but the Sports and Recreation Commission yesterday released a list of 11 categories with 73 nominees that will be trimmed to around 33 today.

It is, however, in the Team of the Year category that the competition looks tough since all nominees deserve to win.

The Paralympic rowing national team, the Mighty Warriors, the Zimbabwe Warriors, Netball Under-21 national team, netball senior team, hockey Under-21 national team and the boys’ Under-17 football team to the African Union Sports Council Region Five Games in Angola are the nominees.

The rowing team took part in the Rio 2016 final qualification Regatta in Varese, Italy, and were ninth out of 10 teams in a time of four minutes 25 seconds.

They participated in the Rowing World Cup in Poznan, Poland, in June 2016 and came last out of seven teams and were also at the 2016 Paralympic Games.

The Mighty Warriors qualified for the women’s Afcon in Cameroon as well as the Rio Olympics in Brazil.

The Warriors qualified for the Afcon in Gabon, while the netball Under-21 national team won a silver medal in the World Youth Netball Qualifiers in July 2016 in Botswana and qualified for the World Youth Netball Tournament. Their senior counterparts won silver in the Diamond Challenge Series in Durban, South Africa, in September 2016.

The Junior Africa Cup hockey championships in Namibia saw the Zimbabwe Under-21 settling for bronze and in the process qualifying for the World Cup.

Other categories include the Junior Sportswoman of the Year with eight nominees, Sportsman of the Year (7), Junior sportswoman with disability (7), Junior Sportsman with disability (6), Sports Woman of the Year (3), Sportsman of the Year (9), Sportswoman of the Year with a Disability (3), Sportsman of the Year with a Disability (6), Coach of the Year (9) and Technical official of the Year (8).