The annual Australian Muaythai awards take place shortly, and many of the nominated athletes have represented Australia at IFMA world level. It’s a great reflection of the hard work done by the federation to develop amateur muaythai.

Muaythai Australia has done great work over the past years to grow the sport, focusing strongly on the youth element.

This has resulted in fantastic results at youth level including gold medals again for sisters Emily and Sophie Curtain at the 2018 Worlds. They are both nominated in the Female Teenage category, as is gold medalist Tia Nikpalj.

The ‘Kids’ section is dominated by IFMA level athletes including Blair Geraghty, Kai Nelson and Charlia Hodgson. Damon Nelson is nominated in the Teen section, and has also successfully represented his country at world level.

Stepping up an age level, Diandra Martin won gold for Australia at the FISU World University Championships in Muaythai this summer and is also nominated. Her success has earned her a place on the VIP guest list too.

Yolanda Schmidt won gold at the Asian Championships just last month. This was a great achievement as it was the first time Australia could take part in this championships, thanks to a change in rules by the Olympic Committee of Asia.

Voting takes place online so the whole muaythai community is involved. It’s a great profile-raiser for the athletes, and gives them a sense of how much they are supported.

Follow Muaythai Australia here for updates on the national teams.

See all nominations for the Australian Muaythai Awards here.