/ 4 July 2007

Top SA wheelchair athlete up for grand award

South African wheelchair marathon athlete Krige Schabort will hope to join Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong as a winner of an ESPY Award following his nomination for best male athlete with a disability .

The event, which confers awards for individual and team athletic achievement, takes place on July 15 in Hollywood and is modelled on the Grammy and Academy Awards.

Since inception, the ESPYs have been chosen through voting by fans, sportswriters, broadcasters, sports executives, sports players and ESPN personalities.

Schabort, who won his wheelchair division of the 2006 New York Marathon, has been nominated alongside Robin Ammerlaan, Joshua George and Casey Tibbs.

Schabort won bronze and silver medals at the 1992 Barcelona and 2000 Sydney Paralympics, and completed the New York Marathon in a time of 1:32:19.

Ammerlaan is the wheelchair tennis world champion, while George is a track and field athlete as well as a wheelchair basketball player who won five medals at last year’s Athletics World Championships.

Tibbs took home gold in the pentathlon and silver in the long jump at last year’s Athletics World Championships.

Schabort is currently training to be part of the South African team going to the Paralympics in Beijing 2008. — Sapa