REVEALED: Stars from two sports share top Warwick award

ELEVEN senior sports stars honoured at gala awards dinner

THE WINNERS: Guest speaker Delissa Kimmince, Daily News editor Kerri Moore, Warwick Credit Union CEO Lewis von Stieglitz, local sports star winner Tom Hardy, joint senior sports star winner Jake Wyllie, Daily News advertising manager Kaela Freeman and joint senior sports star winner Mitch Eastwell. Picture: Gerard Walsh

SPORTS AWARDS: A boxer and a cowboy have shared the Daily News/Warwick Credit Union Senior Sports Star of the Year award which was presented on Monday night at the Hawker Road Function Centre.

The awards were presented in front of a crowd of 180.

Warwick Boxing Club member Jake Wyllie, 18, competed internationally for Australia for the first time last year and won a silver medal in the Hong Kong International.

Last year, Warwick cowboy Mitch Eastwell won his first national Australian Professional Rodeo Association title when he won the rope and tie at the Warwick Rodeo APRA National Finals.

The pair split the $1000 first prize from the Warwick Credit Union.

Wyllie started 2018 by winning his sixth state gold medal and went on to win his fifth national golden gloves title. He won gold at the South East Queensland titles.

He captained Queensland at the national selection titles and was presented with the Jamie Nicolson Memorial Trophy for being the 'best Queensland boxer' at the titles.

Later in the year, Wyllie was selected in an Australian team to compete in Germany where he had a victory against the German champion.

He trained with a talent identification squad at the AIS in Canberra and is aiming to make the Australian team for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Competing in front of his home crowd, Eastwell had two wins and a third in the four rounds at the national finals to win the rope and tie title buckle, a feat he has dreamed about since first roping as a young child.

He placed in three-quarters of the 30 rodeos he contested last year in both the APRA and National Rodeo Association.

Eastwell won the rope and tie and 'all-around cowboy' title at the richest rodeo in Australia at Mt Isa in August.

He helps out a lot of children keen to start roping and helps organise the stock at rodeos.

Working to mentor schoolboys keen to advance in the sport of powerlifting has helped earn Tom Hardy the 'local sportsperson of the year' award.

Hardy trains at DY Gym in Warwick and in October he broke the world record with a squat lift of 333kg in the junior category for men up to 110kg.

It was his second world record in a career which to the end of 2018 had also netted three Australian records.

He referees at local powerlifting competitions. While he works in the fitness industry, Hardy does a lot of voluntary work to assist athletes unable to afford training fees.

Originally published as REVEALED: Stars from two sports share top Warwick award