NORTH Vancouver tennis star Filip Peliwo's historic season was topped off last week when the True Sport Foundation announced his nomination as a Junior Athlete of the Year finalist for 40th Canadian Sport Awards.
Peliwo ended the year as the No. 1ranked junior tennis player in the world after winning the Wimbledon and U.S. Open junior championships and finishing second at the Australian and French Opens. He was the first player since 1984 to make the final of all four junior Grand Slam tournaments in one year.
The other nominees are ski jumper Alexandra Pretorius of Calgary and wrestler Dorothy Yeats of Montreal.
"I've had such an unbelievable year beyond my expectations, and it is an amazing feeling and great honour to be recognized alongside such accomplished athletes," Peliwo said in a release.
"Filip has put together the most successful season by a Canadian junior tennis player ever," said Michael S. Downey, president and CEO of Tennis Canada. "It is wonderful that his incredible and historic achievements are being noticed and honoured in this way. We wish good luck to Filip and the other finalists."
Past winners of Junior Athlete of the Year awards include Blythe Hartley, Eric Lindros and Lennox Lewis. This year's winner will be announced Oct. 17 during the president's reception at Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in Calgary.
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West Vancouver's Harry Jones was recently named to Canada's national senior men's sevens rugby team for the opening leg of the Sevens World Series 2012/13 which will take place Oct. 13-14 in Australia.
This marks the first time that Canada will be a core member of the World Series, meaning they will be one of 15 nations that will participate in all nine legs of the series. The action begins with matches against defending champions New Zealand along with South Africa and the United States this weekend on Australia's Gold Coast.
Canada comes into the tournament on a high, having won the North America Caribbean Rugby Association finals over the U.S. in August.
Jones, a 23-year-old Rockridge secondary grad, is a member of the North Shore's Capilano Rugby Club.
- Compiled by Andy Prest
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