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Laureus awards for Boks, Oscar?
17/02/2008 22:08 - (SA)
Pieter Malan, Die Burger
St Petersburg - The Springboks, who won the Rugby World Cup last year, are among the favourites to win the 2008 Laureus World Team of the Year Award on Monday.
The awards will be presented by the Laureus Sports Academy, an organisation consisting of 43 legendary sports personalities, including John McEnroe, Nadia Comaneci, Edwin Moses and Steve Waugh.
The Springboks were nominated for the 2007 Team Award after remaining unbeaten at the World Cup tournament in France.
In the motivation for their nomination, the South Africans are also praised for the impact some of their individual stars made in France.
Among them are Percy Montgomery, who scored the most points in the tournament, Bryan Habana, who scored most tries, and Frans Steyn, who was named as the best new talent at the tournament.
Other teams nominated for the award are Champions League winners AC Milan, Cricket World Cup champions, Australia, the Ferrari Formula One team, the German team that won the women's Soccer World Cup, and Iraq's soccer team, the Asian champions.
South African disabled athlete Oscar Pistorius has been nominated in the category, Breakthrough of the Year, for running in international 400m races in Rome and England.
His main opposition is likely to come from British racing driver Lewis Hamilton, who made a sensational Formula One debut last year.
Tennis star Roger Federer is expected to win the Sports Star of the Year award for the fourth successive year after winning the Wimbledon title for the fifth year in a row.
Other nominees are American athlete Tyson Gay, Brazilian soccer star Kaka, American swimmer Michael Phelps, Finnish Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen and golfing superstar, Tiger Woods.
The nominees for Female Sports Star of the Year are Belgian tennis ace Justine Henin, Russian athlete Yelena Isinbayeva, Swedish athlete Carolina Kluft, Australian swimmer Libby Lenton, Brazilian soccer player Marta and Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa.
- Die Burger
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