A sprinter succeeds a rider. Bradley Lestrade received the Neuchâtel sports merit award of the year on Wednesday evening at the Grange at the Cernier concerts. The athlete from La Chaux-de-Fonnier obtained 18% of the vote against 17% for the Locloise Camille Balanche, who took the final general classification 2022 of the MTB Downhill World Cup. The Geneveys-sur-Coffrane triathlon specialist, Loanne Duvoisin, completes the podium.
Aged 21, Bradley Lestrade burst into the open this season on the international scene: “It’s only been four years since I started athletics,” he says. He notably stood out at the European Championships last August in Munich alongside other Swiss sprinters. The Swiss ranked 5e of the 4 x 100m relay final, lowering the national record in the process. Bradley Lestrade thus succeeds Bryan Balsiger: the Corcelles rider was rewarded in 2021.
A budding swimmer
The Hope of the Year Award went to Manon Richard. Aged 15, the young swimmer from Red Fish Neuchâtel won, among other things, the bronze medal in the 200m backstroke at the Swiss elite championships last March. Manon Richard won 14% of the vote, ahead of the 12% of CEP Cortaillod athlete Alexis Perroud. Freestyle specialist Alizée Grivel takes 3e rank. Manon Richard was the first surprise to be on the top step of the podium: “To be nominated already was a surprise. But in addition to winning, it’s really big”.
As for the Team of the Year Award, it was won for the third year in a row by the NUC. This nomination rewards the Neuchâtel women’s volleyball team, crowned Swiss champions for the third time in a row.Paragraph
Steve von Bergen rewarded
Three other personalities from the Neuchâtel sports world were honored again on Wednesday evening in Cernier. The Manager, Coach or Referee Award went to Steve von Bergen. It rewards the entire career of the Neuchâtel footballer who today holds the position of sports director at Young Boys, a club of which he was captain.
The Neuchâtel Sports Press Prize was awarded to Luigi Carniel, considered one of the pioneers in the development of martial arts in Europe. In 1969, Luigi Carniel founded the Neuchâtel Academy of Japanese Martial Arts. The Panathlon-club des Montagnes neuchâteloise awarded the Special Prize to Jean-Claude Chautems, head of the Nordic center of Vue-des-Alpes/Tête-de-Ran for thirty years and who has just retired.
The Neuchâtel Sporting Merit Prize is organized by the Cantonal Sports Service, in partnership with the regional media, RTN, Canal Alpha and Arcinfo. More than 6,200 people voted online this year: a record. /mine