By GRACE CHAILE –
BADMINTON female top seed Ogar Siamupangila and footballer Chishimba Changala scooped the 2014 Zambia Police Sports Personalities-of-the-Year awards at the weekend.
This was during the awards held at the weekend at Mulungushi International Conference Centre (MICC) in Lusaka.
Long and high jump budding star Joseph Sinkala won the Most Promising Young Talent ward.
Sinkala put up an impressive show during the 2014 Africa Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region Five Youth Games in Zimbabwe where he won gold in high jump and bronze in long jump despite carrying a nasty ankle injury.
Under-20 and Nkwazi goalkeeping coach Yona Phiri won the Coach-of-the-Year award beating Zambia Under-17 football soccer team coach Chris Kaunda and Francis Manjanta.
In other categories, judoka Mathews Punza was awarded the Most Valuable Talent while Nkwazi Rugby Club won the Most Improved Club award.
Nkwazi Chess Club won the Best Club award while the Zambia Police Golf Club won the Crime Prevention Awareness Activities award.
Milton Mweemba won the Best Referee award as national judo coach Moola Lipmile scooped the Coach-of-the-Year other disciplines.
Zambia Judo Association (ZJA) president Alfred Foloko the sports administrator of the year owing to the judokas minting medals at Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland and AUSC games.
Linda Hamoonga of Nkwazi Chess Club won the Most Improved Sportswoman award while Christopher Kashita, Adriano Kashila and Tedious Mutapa (football), Reuben Ngwenda (rugby) received the Inspector General Special Recognition award.
Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police Stella Libongani encouraged the athletes to remain focused and work harder this year and ensure they win medals for the Zambia Police and the country.