2023 turned out to be an excellent sporting year for Emmen. Sports enthusiasts from the municipality participated in the Tour de France, became double world shuffleboard champions or could call themselves the best referee in the Netherlands.
42 individual athletes, volunteers, coaches and teams were therefore put in the spotlight at the annual sports gala on Thursday evening. Fourteen of them won an extra title in the new year for their performances last year.
Surprise for g-football players
At the gala a year ago, FC Emmen was the shining center of the sports festival. The main force of the red and white had the most successful year ever in 2022 with the championship and promotion.
In 2023, the honor of the professional club had to be saved by the G team. And they did that with verve. Seven football players with an intellectual disability were nominated after a successful and enjoyable season in the Special Eredivisie in which they won against Ajax, among others. 7-0 that is.
There was no question of mutual election competition between the football talents in recent weeks. And the results turned out not to be necessary at all. The seven were voted athletes of the year by the jury and the public.
Prize for brick mikster
So they stood very proudly on the podium next to new sportsman of the year Max Tubben, among others. The racing driver from Nieuw-Weerdinge is used to competing with other fast men. On Thursday evening he left behind fast athletes on horseback (Arjen Holties), on steel horse (Roy Eefting and Elmar Reinders), on motorcycle (speedwayer William Kruit) and on water, foot and bicycle (triathlete Theo Fuhler).
This year, agility was mainly rewarded for women, although the brigs of sportswoman of the year Elly Mensen (52) of De Brikkenmikkers from Klazienaveen can reportedly also glide through the shuffleboard at high speed. The jury and audience rewarded the 2023 double world champion with the title Bucket Sportswoman of the Year.
After Thursday, Klazienaveen can rightly call itself a sports village because the sports team of the year also comes from there. These were the volleyball players from Tjoba, who became champions last spring and were promoted to the first division. To top it all off, Simone Veenstra, chairman of the local gym association, was honored as volunteer of the year.
Flute and frame
How diverse the Emmer sports talent is was evident from the winning para-athlete and the talent for 2023. The Armenian-Emmenian frame runner Nerses Mesropyan sprinted to the prize for para-athlete of the year in his adapted balance bike with three wheels and a chest support. As a referee on the football field, talent Ruben van Klinken (17) must mainly ensure that others show the best game. And that he is skilled with the whistle was already evident when he was chosen as amateur referee of the year.
The new title of sports coach of the year fell to a nationally known face. Born in Coevorde, René Hake has been making an impression for some time as a celebrated coach in professional football. Hake, who lives in Erica, received the award for his performance with Go Ahead Eagles.
The oeuvre prize logically went to Bennie Wolbers (78), who has organized the sports gala together with his wife Heintje for the past twenty years. Association director Mark Siekman from Barger-Oosterveld took over and presented a new style sports gala with his team on Thursday evening, without forgetting its predecessor.