THE debate over who is the world’s best sportsman or woman, or which is the best team, has always had an enduring fascination for sports fans.
Usain Bolt - is he a better champion than Muhammad Ali or Serena Williams? is the kind of question that has fuelled bar room conversations for decades.
In Brecon and Radnorshire that conversation is especially pointed because of the unique composition of the two historic counties’ sports scenes.
Take football for instance. There is no single league that takes in all the Brecon and Radnorshire men’s football teams, so there is no easy way of saying which team should be top of the pile.
Even by widening the choice to take in the whole county of Powys or the mid Wales region fails to solve these conundrums.
Equally how can you compare two individual sports stars from entirely different disciplines, such as tennis and bowls, or sports stars from different genders or in a different age banding?
This week the Brecon & Radnor Express has decided to try and fuel these conversations while also hopefully solving some of the debates with our inaugural Sportsperson of the Year Awards.
Through an admittedly entirely unscientific method of canvassing our readers we hope to establish just who of all the sportsmen, women and teams in our area deserve the highest recognition.
Every week until Thursday, December 14 we will be printing a form in the Brecon & Radnor Express inviting our readers to nominate their choices for seven different categories: Sportsman of the Year, Sportswoman of the Year, Sports Volunteer of the Year, Sports Team of the Year, Young Sports Star (male or female), Veteran Sports Star (male or female), Disabled Sports Star (male or female).
The deadline for nominations to reach the Brecon and Radnor’s offices is Wednesday, December 20. All nomination forms must either be posted or handed into the Brecon & Radnor Express offices at 11 The Bulwark, Brecon LD3 7AE. Each nomination should include the reasons why you think your choice of sportsperson or team deserves to be nominated. Each nomination must be accompanied by an actual nomination form from the paper (photocopies will not be accepted) although nomination reasons may extend to a separate sheet of paper. This can be just a few words, a single line, or a paragraph of up to 200 words. A full list of the nominees along with the best of the nomination reasons will be printed in our Thursday, December 28 edition.
A new form will be printed in the paper on that date on which readers can vote for their choice as winner in each category. This form will be reprinted in the paper in our Thursday, January 4 edition and the winners will be announced at an event yet to be finalised early in the New Year.
See this week’s Brecon and Radnor Express for the nomination form.