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Three down, three to go. We’re on the home straight of The Roar’s Sports Awards 2016, and it’s once again up to you to decide who finishes the year a winner.
Having already put Sports Personality of the Year, Team of the Year and Sports Media Personality of the Year out there for you to vote on, it’s now time for you to decide the Breakout Sports Star of the Year.
As the name suggests, this award is for the Australian athlete who came out of nowhere to stamp themselves as a bonafide star of their chosen sport. There’s no age limit or anything like that – it’s just for whoever went from relative anonymity to the forefront of Australian sport in 2016.
Missed the previous awards? Get your votes in here:
» Sports Media Personality of the Year
» Team of the Year
» Sports Personality of the Year
We’ve narrowed the contenders down to a shortlist of seven. Now it’s up to you to decide who gets the award.
Rugby Sevens
Caslick had a 2016 to remember. Coming into the year she was far from Australia’s highest-profile women’s sevens player, but she’s now front and centre in the side after starring in the Pearls’ World Sevens Series and Rio Olympics wins and taking home World Rugby women’s sevens player of the year award. Not bad for a 21-year-old.
Swimming
Coming into the Olympics, all eyes were on the likes of Mitchell Larkin, Cam McEvoy and Mack Horton in the pool. Few knew about Chalmers, the 18-year-old schoolkid from Adelaide. That changed pretty quickly, though, as Chalmers produced an astounding finish in the men’s 100m freestyle final to snatch an unlikely gold medal in one of swimming’s highest-profile races.
Modern Pentathlon
Chalmers’ gold was unlikely, but Esposito’s was even more so. In a sport which doesn’t exactly have much of a profile in Australia, Esposito catapulted herself – and modern pentathlon – onto the front pages with a barnstorming final running/shooting leg in Rio.
Starting the final event 45 seconds behind the leader, Esposito missed just one of her 20 shots to grab the gold medal, setting an Olympic record while she was at it. Oh, it was also Australia’s first-ever medal – let alone a gold – in the event.
Swimming
Much like Chalmers, Groves was not one of Australia’s leading swimmers heading into Rio. She certainly left as one, though. Groves produced a stirring swim in her semi-final to qualify fastest for the final, and, after leading all the way in the final, was just out-touched by Spaniard Mireia Belmonte Garcia by 0.03 of a second to claim silver.
Cricket
Having been touted as a chance for the baggy green for some time now, Handscomb made himself a must-pick for the Test side with his maiden first-class double-century against New South Wales. He then followed it up with a fifty in his first knock for Australia against the Proteas at the Adelaide Oval and hit the winning runs in his second.
Rugby Union
In a year when the Wallabies disappointed on the back of their 2015 World Cup final appearance, Haylett-Petty emerged as one of the few bright spots. While he played most of his minutes out of position on the wing, the Force outside back looked comfortable in the green and gold and has cemented himself in Michael Cheika’s first-choice XV.
Basketball
There’s been hype around Simmons for some time now, but 2016 saw him truly announce himself to the basketball world. The Melbourne-born forward averaged 19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists in a stellar college season for LSU, and became the first Australian since Andrew Bogut (and only the second ever) to be taken with the first pick of the NBA draft.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.