PAPUA New Guinea Olympians Morea Baru, Josh Tarere and Leonie Beau have been named male and female athlete of the year finalists in the 2025 SP Sports Awards event set for June 14.

They are among the country’s best following their stellar performances at the 2024 Paris Olympics in France.

Baru who competed in the sport of weightlifting finished two spots shot of a podium finish in the Men’s 61kg division while Tarere set a new personal best after winning his 100m freestyle heat in Swimming.

Beu competed in the women’s 100m preliminary round and clocked a new personal best before advancing into the next round.

Baru and Tarere are named as ‘Male Athlete of the Year’ finalist alongside PNG Kapuls captain Alwin Komolong for his outstanding contributions to football last year including the Oceania FIFA World Cup Qualifiers and the MSG Cup.

Beu is named female athlete finalist among PNG Weightlifter Thelma Toua who won gold at the United Master Weightlifting Championship in Fiji last year as well as PNG Hurdler Adrine Monagi who continues to set the standards high for athletics.

Meanwhile SP Sports Awards Selection Panel Chairman Warwick Vele said 36 finalists were named for each of the categories based on their selection criteria.

“This year, we were pleased to see a strong level of interest and participation in the nomination process. A total of 210 nominations were received across all categories 135 submitted online and 60 submitted in hard copy, with 15 of those hard copy nominations received without supporting documents.”

“Please note that those 15 were included in the overall total, while this is slightly fewer than what we received last year, it nonetheless reflects continued public trust in the SP Sports Awards as a meaningful platform to acknowledge excellence in sport.”

“It also reminds us that quality always matters just as much as quantity, and the pride Papua New Guineans take in celebrating their sporting heroes remains as strong as ever.”

Vele said one notable highlight for this year was the ‘Male Athlete of the Year’ category which received the highest number of nominations across all categories.

“We recorded a total of 49 nominations, 44 submitted online and 5 in hard copy, reflecting the vast talent and competition among our male athletes in 2024.” he added.

He emphasized that the vetting and selection process is a serious task where each nomination is carefully reviewed and discussed at length.

“We followed a fair and transparent process, guided by the strict criteria set out for each award category.”

The finalists for the 2025 SP Sports Awards are:

• Male Athlete of the Year:  Morea Baru (Weightlifting), Josh Tarere (Swimming), Alwin Komolong (Football)
• Female Athlete of the Year: Leonie Beu (Athletics), Adrine Monagi (Athletics), Thelma Toua (Weightlifting)
• Team of the Year: PNG Mosquitoes (AFL), PNG Kurakums (AFL), PNG Lewas (Cricket)
• National Performance of the Year: Valley Hunters (Rugby Union), Irok Pirates (Rugby Union, Alotau Basketball 3×3 (Basketball)
• Community Sports Initiative: Jason Lahui (Chess In the Hood-Chess), Roland Muluyaru (Soccer Kickout Home Brew-Football), Special Olympics PNG (Multi-Sport)
• Junior Male Athlete of the Year: Gaba Frank (Cricket), River-Jordan Hakena (Tennis), Allan Sevara (AFL)
• Junior Female Athlete of the Year: Timonaliz Alarcos-Kriebisch (Squash), Colita Hakena (Tennis) Ani-Geua Gavera (Weightlifting)
• Para-Athlete of the Year: Haoda Agari (Table Tennis), Manega Tapari (Para-Taekwondo), Regina Edward (Badminton)
• Sports Official of the Year: Edward Kassman (Taekwondo), Nelson Stone (Multi-Sports), Victor Sarwom (Rugby League)
• Sports Media of the Year: EMTV Sports Scene, Jamie Haro (Sunday Chronicles), Michael Philip (The National)
• Sports Photo of the Year: Sibona Kala (Cross-Fit Rope), Tony Haro (Lone Child), Brenda Kariko (Denied Allyoop Basket)
• Stan Joyce Award: Exxon Mobil PNG, Pacific Industries Ltd, Moni Plus Ltd