WAIS athlete Cameron Meyer has been crowned the 2012 WA Sports Star of the Year following his heroic performance in winning a sixth track world champion crown last April.
Meyer who also scooped the WAIS Athlete of the Year award in October edged out an elite group of finalists that included Olympic bronze medallists Gemma Beadsworth (water polo) and Fergus Kavanagh (hockey), fellow Olympians Ben Cureton and Todd Skipworth (rowing), Melissa Hoskins (cycling), wheelchair basketball Paralympian Shaun Norris, Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo, boxing champion Danny Green, Test batsman Mike Hussey and Wallabies legend Nathan Sharpe.
The 23 year-old became the 11th Western Australian to win the award in consecutive years and now ranks amongst WA sporting royalty.
The WA Sports Federation’s night of nights also saw significant awards for other WAIS athletes and staff.
Lauren Mitchell’s brilliant performance in the floor apparatus final at the London Olympic earned her the Winter Strickland Medal for the most outstanding performance from the Games. Mitchell’s efforts in finishing narrowly shy of a bronze medal, despite competing with an adductor strain, was adjudged the most worthy.
Mitchell’s coaches were also honoured on the night, with Martine George and Nikolai Lapchine accepting the WA Coach of the Year Award for the second time.
Rounding off a successful evening for WAIS, scholarship holders Jesse Phillips and Stephen Bird won the WA Team of the Year Award, for their thrilling debut at the London Olympics. The duo qualified for the final of the men’s K2 200m event at Eton Dorney, finishing a highly credible sixth.
