THE Hamilton Sportswoman of the Year awards are here with Monday night’s dinner set to celebrate a return to full competitions.

After reduced sport in recent years due to the pandemic, the 2023 nominees are back to the usual amounts, with 13 senior award nominees and seven junior nominees.

Sportswoman of the Year Hamilton branch president, Lorraine Northcott said it was exciting to see new faces in contention.

“There are quite a few new ones that we haven’t had before and quite a few different sports represented,” she said.

“The cut off was September 15, so anything that has happened after that goes into next year’s cycle.

“Some of those nominated will carry those through to next year.

“We have more seniors than juniors this year which is a bit unusual, but it is great to have people competing all year round again.”

The process to select the nominees started over 12 months ago, with the votes tallied recently to settle on the winners, which will be announced on Monday.

“Over the 12 months we award certificate of merits to people who have done very well in their sport,” Northcott said.

“Normally they are nominated once they reach state level; we do send out lots of letters of congratulations for best and fairest winners, but the certificates go to state level and above.

“At the start of September, those certificate of merit winners receive a form to fill out with their five or six best performances then that is collated and send to the sportswoman association, not just the committee, and it is then voted on a three, two, one basis.

“Those votes were counted on October 15 for the dinner on Monday.”

The team award, the Betty Holmes Memorial Trophy and the achievement award will also be presented.