The newly-crowned Tamworth Sports Star of the Year is in Sydney for the NSW Track Championships and to defend her state individual pursuit, time trial and omnium titles.

She was on the track yesterday and was in for a busy few days, with her pet event,  the individual pursuit,  tomorrow.

It meant she wasn’t able to attend Thursday night’s Tamworth Regional Sports Awards, where she was also named the Young Sports Star of the Year.

Along with the three state titles, Saunders also won silver in the individual pursuit at the national championships and was part of the NSW team that broke both the Australian Championship and all-comers’ records in winning the team pursuit, was second in the U19s women’s division at the Oceania road titles, and was selected in the Australian team to compete at the UCI Junior Track World Championships in August.

Cricketer Tom Groth was named Senior Sports Star of the Year while sprinter Emma Klasen won Junior Sports Star of the Year.

Groth, a right-handed batsman and wicketkeeper, is one of the region’s highest capped representative achievers and has been a regular in the NSW Country side.

Klasen won the sprint double at both the state school and Little Athletics championships, and went on to claim gold in the 100m at the Little Athletics nationals and 200m at the All Schools nationals.

Ten different sports were represented among the 14 athletes, coaches and club administrators honoured at the awards, with Bendemeer’s Josh Hazlewood winning the International Achiever Award, recognising his elevation to and success with the Australian cricket team.

Australian softball captain and former Sports Star winner  Stacey Porter was the special guest for the gala evening at the Capitol Theatre.