THERE is now less than three weeks to go before Gwent’s finest battle it out for honours at the third annual South Wales Argus Sports Awards.

Preparations are taking shape nicely as the special online broadcast on Thursday, November 5 – presented by Jason Mohammad – moves ever closer.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic the format will obviously be very different to the first two ceremonies, but the quality of the finalists is set to match the high standard of previous years.

The inaugural awards, in 2018, were played out at the Celtic Manor, scene of Europe’s memorable Ryder Cup victory over the USA eight years before.

With Olympic 100m champion Linford Christie acting as guest speaker on the night, the first sports awards saw Newport County AFC manager Michael Flynn claim a prestigious double.

Having guided the Exiles to League Two survival after the team looked doomed to relegation, Flynn picked up the professional sports personality crown and overall sports personality accolade.

And, 12 months later, it would be another County man, striker Padraig Amond, who would follow in his manager’s footsteps by securing the same awards, plus the club’s player of the year.

But it wasn’t just the region’s top football team celebrating gongs at the Celtic Manor and then Chepstow Racecourse.

South Wales Argus:

A whole raft of sports are represented in the awards’ list of winners to date, with rugby, gymnastics, triathlon and athletics to name but a few.

Martials arts has fared well and could be in the mix again this time around.

In Chepstow, UFC star Jack Shore, who is in the running for the professional personality crown this year, was on hand to see dad Richard scoop the grassroots gong, while Heads of the Valleys Tang Soo Do supremo Angus Rogers was coach of the year – he goes for back-to-back titles next month.

Taekwondo’s Kriya Adoniel Pahimna also succeeded Ben Meyrick of Valleys Taekwondo Academy as winner of the junior sports personality award.

Valleys Gymnastics Academy have enjoyed plenty of success in the first two years of the sports awards – two awards in 2018 were followed by three a year later.

Head honcho Melissa Anderson was given the outstanding services to sport in Gwent prize in 2019, while Bethany Paull and Shauna Morgan have both won disability performer of the year titles.

Anderson, like Rogers, has a chance of repeating her success of last year, and Paull could regain the title she won in 2018.

There isn’t long to wait now until the winners for 2020 are revealed.