Marathon skater Chiel Smit (25) from Zuidwolde and volleyball international Nova Marring (22) from Assen have been elected Drenthe sportsman and sportswoman of 2023. The sports awards were presented tonight in the De Nieuwe Kolk theater in Assen.
All twelve Drenthe municipalities were allowed to send one nominee per category. A total of six prizes were awarded tonight. The public and a jury came together to reach the final verdict.
For the men, that honor fell to marathon skater Chiel Smit. In his first year as an A-driver, he won the Grand Prix final over 150 kilometers on the sea ice of the Gulf of Bothnia in Sweden last February.
At the end of January this year he once again showed his class on natural ice by winning silver in the battle for the Dutch Open title over 150 kilometers on the Weissensee in Austria.
Volleyball player Nova Marring from Assen was elected sportswoman of our province. She was the revelation of last season among the national volleyball women. National coach Felix Koslowski included her in the selection. She played in the Nations League and immediately won bronze during her first European Championship.
Marring started her career at Sudosa-Desto in Assen. She ended up in Belgium via Regio Zwolle Volleybal, where she played for three seasons. First at LVL Tongeren, then at Asterix AVO Beveren, where she won the national title and the cup in her last season and was also named volleyball player of the year.
This season she switched to SSC Palmberg Schwerin in the German Bundesliga. organized. The club has been trained by Dutch national coach Koslowski for ten years. Marring himself was unable to attend the ceremony. Her father received the prize.
The football players of ACV from Assen won the Drenthe Sports Team 2023 prize. They became champions of the third division in Saturday football and were promoted to the second division. This means that, after FC Emmen, they play at the highest level in our province.
Under the leadership of trainer Ruud Jalving, the Assen team decided the championship one match before the end of the competition. In Harderwijk, ACV won 4-1 against VVOG.
Obstacle runner Leon Frederiks from Westerbork was named Drenthe sports talent of the year. In Obstacle Course Racing, as the sport is fully called, you cover a distance while running, encountering various obstacles along the way. For example, you have to climb, swim, shoot, chop wood or throw the javelin.
Frederiks won the world title among sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds in Genk, Belgium – in the three-kilometre race. He won silver on the long distance – over fifteen kilometers. In addition, the Börker also won bronze at the Dutch survival run championships in his own age class.
Frederiks has been running survival runs since he was eight, but last year he switched to OCR because the sport is a lot more international.
Among the para athletes, athletes with a disability, Sabine Spreen from Rolde won the title. She is also an obstacle runner, just like sports talent Leon Frederiks.
Spreen became world champion among the elite para-athletes at the Spartan Trifecta in Greece. Over three days, participants run a distance every day, ranging from 7.5 to 26.5 kilometers.
Spreen has an autoimmune disease and cannot straighten her right shoulder. The para-athletes category was new at the world championships in Sparta, Greece.
A remarkable fact is that sister Daphne Spreen was nominated for the title of Sportswoman of Drenthe. After becoming world champion at the Spartan Trifecta two years ago, she had to settle for silver last year.
The Sports Pearl of Drenthe was awarded to the Duofietsen Foundation of the municipality of Coevorden. The award is intended for a person, association or organization that has committed itself to sports and exercise in the province of Drenthe in a special and positive way in recent years.
The Duofietsen Foundation has existed since 2011 and has starting points in Sleen, Dalen, Oosterhesselen, Zweeloo and Schoonebeek. Participants who cannot or dare not cycle independently can sit next to a volunteer on the duo bike. A route of approximately 25 kilometers is cycled every week. Last year, 175 participants and 170 volunteers took part.