NSWIS athletes celebrated at the Australian Paralympic Awards

Maddison Elliott, James Turner and retiring veteran Liesl Tesch have all been honoured at the Australian Paralympic Awards gala dinner in Sydney.

So too were Paralympic gold medal winning sailors Jonathan Harris and Daniel Fitzgibbon.

The Australian Paralympic Committee’s (APC) biggest night saw Paralympic swimming champion Elliott, who was Australia’s most prolific medallist and the 10th most successful from any nation at the Rio Games, take out Female Paralympian of the Year.

The award goes alongside the three awards Elliott won at this year’s NSWIS Awards, including the Sydney City Toyota Female Athlete of the Year award.

Paralympic debutant Turner was awarded Paralympic Rookie of the Year after surging to Paralympic gold in the 800m T36 event for athletes with neurological impairments. Also nominated for Male Paralympian of the Year, Turner exceeded all expectations when he smashed the world record by nearly three seconds.

The Paralympic Team of the Year title was awarded to the Australian Paralympic Sailing team comprising of three boats, which together achieved a near-perfect haul of two gold and one silver medal.

The NSWIS’s Harris and his teammates Russell Boaden and Colin Harrison, who were dominant throughout their Games campaign, won gold in the 3-person keelboat Sonar event, while NSWIS teammates Fitzgibbon and Tesch became the first pair ever to win the 2-person keelboat SKUD18 title back-to-back.

Tesch was not done being part of the team award either, receiving one of the highest honours of the evening, the inaugural Uncle Kevin Coombs Medal for the Spirit of the Games.

Co-captains of the 2016 Australian Paralympic Team five-time Paralympian and NSWIS star Kurt Fearnley and six-time Paralympian Danni Di Toro were charged with selecting the award winner, with Di Toro saying:

“When I think about this mob and what it means to be a Paralympian, not only our successes as athletes but also as teammates and members of the community, none fly the flag higher than Liesl.”

(Images Australian Paralympic Committee)