Athletes, coaches, officials and administrators were all honoured for their successes at the 21st annual Nanaimo Sport Achievement Awards. (Image Credit: Nanaimo Sport Achievement Awards)

By Dan Marshall

Best in Sport

Nanaimo celebrates Sport Achievement Awards and Hall of Fame inductions

Feb 21, 2026 | 1:52 PM

NANAIMO — The best accomplishments in local sports were recognized at the 21st annual Nanaimo Sport Achievement Awards.

The ceremony was at the Coastal Bastion Hotel on Friday, Feb. 20 and also included three inductions into the Nanaimo Sports Hall of Fame.

Seventeen annual awards were given out along with two special awards for contributions to the Nanaimo sports community in 2025.

The BC 55+ Games held in September in Nanaimo was selected as the Sports Story of the Year while a series of impressive performances earned the Nanaimo Rowing Club honours for Team of the Year.

Kiersten Mort from the NRC also took home Female Individual Athlete of the Year while cyclist Andrew Hamilton earned the top male honours.

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Andrew Bowman was selected as the Male Team Athlete of the Year with VIU soccer standout Jada Kamerman chosen as the Female Athlete of the Year.

In the junior category the Team of the Year went to Snuneymuxw Islanders girls basketball.

Individual junior honours were given to Evie Pritchard for skateboarding and mountain biker Ryder Wilson.

The top junior male and female team athletes were handed out to Grayson Ritzand for basketball and Rylee Wing for lacrosse.

On the coaching side Bobbie Taylor earned the high performance award for a stellar campaign guiding the VIU Mariners to the CCAA national tournament and the top grassroots coach was Dover Bay’s Dave Nelson for his work with athletes in volleyball and golf.

Other awards were bestowed upon Edwin Johnston for Masters Athlete of the Year while lawn bowlers Ann and Ian Yewer were selected Partners of the Year.

Recognition was also given to Vicky Long for sport administration and Anastasia Trenholm for officiating, both in hockey.

The Michael Rhode Award went to Grant Renton for his long time commitment to sport in the community and Christine Lynch won the Steve Smith Memorial Award for contribution to extreme sports.

The ultimate honour was given to Hadi Abassi, Larry Brown and Yvonne Visser who went into the Nanaimo Sports Hall of Fame.

Abassi as a builder for founding the VI Raiders, Brown in media for a long career in television production and Visser in the athlete category for appearing in two Winter Olympics in Biathlon.

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