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Area garners five nominations for Sport B.C. awards
Burnaby made the shortlist in four categories for the 41st annual Sport B.C. athlete of the year awards.
South Burnaby soccer great Christine Sinclair, last year's senior female winner, is up for the same award this year when Sport B.C. holds its gala event at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Vancouver March 14.
Sinclair had a banner year in 2006, winning a second College Cup championship with the University of Portland, scoring two goals in the NCAA Division 1 championship final.
The fourth-year senior set a single-season scoring record of 39 goals with Portland and was named a two-time winner of the MAC Hermann award as the top female footballer in the NCAA.
Sinclair also earned the NCAA All-academic All-America award and the NCAA's female athlete of the year, the first athlete to be so honoured.
To top it off, Sinclair was shortlisted for player of the year by soccer's world body, FIFA.
Up for team of the year is the B.C. Hockey League's Burnaby Express, which won it all in 2006.
The Express took the league's Fred Page Cup, the Doyle Cup against the Alberta champion and then topped it all with the franchise's first-ever Royal Bank Cup, symbolic of junior A hockey supremacy in Canada.
Former New Westminster Salmonbellies box coach Frank Nielsen is up for coach of the year.
Nielsen was the head coach for Canada's gold-medal-winning team at the world field lacrosse championships in Baltimore.
The win was a momentous one for the Canadian team. It broke a 28-year and 37-game winning streak by the American team.
In the game, Canada defeated the Americans 15-10, with Gary Gait, in the final game of his legendary career, scoring four times.
Douglas College badminton player Lyndsay Thomson was also shortlisted for college athlete of the year.
Thomson was undefeated in singles play in 2006, winning the CCAA national women's championships while also being named the national championship MVP and Canadian college player of the year.
Burnaby Central senior Mauro Perizzolo is up for high school athlete of the year in 2006.
Perizzolo is a current member of Canada's under-19 rugby team and No. 1-ranked junior heavyweight wrestler.
published on 01/20/2007
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