Wenhan Shen is Hornsby Advocate’s Junior Sports Star, Patrick Adji Inspiration Award winner
The Hornsby Advocate’s 2019 Junior Sports Star and Inspiration Award winner have been revealed at a gala dinner in Sydney.
Local Sports Stars
Don't miss out on the headlines from Local Sports Stars. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Wenhan Shen loves her sport and wants it to grow in popularity.
She is also so good at fencing she has been named the Hornsby Advocate’s Junior Sports Star.
The Local Sports Stars awards, sponsored by Featherdale Wildlife Park and Bankstown Sports Club, were handed out at a gala dinner on Wednesday night.
The rising stars of NSW sport mingled with big names, including Giants AFLW Star Erin McKinnon, rugby league’s Jamie Soward and netball guns Tayla Fraser and Lauren Moore at Bankstown Sports Club.
PHOTO GALLERY: LOCAL SPORTS STAR WINNERS
Wenhan, who competes in Sabre fencing but was unable to attend the awards due to a school camp, had a stellar 2019, claiming gold medals at this year’s junior and under 15s national fencing championships.
The other Hornsby Advocate’s finalist for the Junior Sports Star award was swimmer Joseph Kim.
Karate gun Patrick Adji was unveiled as the Hornsby Advocate’s Inspiration Award winner at Bankstown Sports Club.
The teen believes sharing his passion and dedication to the sport is more important than winning competitions but he still won a silver medal at this year’s Australian Open.
Patrick gets more pleasure out of seeing his student’s succeed than he does his own achievements.
“This is amazing. I love to be an inspiration. I love to inspire people. Winning this just means I am doing what I love doing,’’ sais the 16-year-old. “Thank you. This is great.”
Each of our Junior Sport publication winners and Inspiration Award winners received $300 and a medal.
Joshua O’Connell (Inner West Courier) was crowned overall Junior Sports Star winner on the night after breaking the world 800m record for 11-year-old’s in April.
MORE SPORT
Swimmer John Dimech-O’Connell (Macarthur Chronicle) won the overall Inspiration Award and the under 14s Gosford City Rebels girls basketball team (Central Coast Express Advocate) the overall team award.
The overall Service to Sport winner was Chung Dang (Canterbury-Bankstown Express).