The Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF) on Wednesday announced three winners of the prestigious honours for sports personalities. NSJF gives away the Sports Award in eight different categories — male, female, youth, coach, popular, lifetime achievement, special and para-athlete of the year. While nominees for the male, female, youth, coach and popular are unveiled prior to the event, the winners of the lifetime achievement, special and para-athlete were announced during a press conference.

Unlike the previous years, NSJF declared the winners of the three categories before the award is staged amidst a grand ceremony at the Nepal Academy hall.

National team cricketer Sharad Vesawkar will receive the Special Award and the fourth WTF World Para-Taekwondo Championship bronze medallist Yadav Kunwar will get Para-Athlete Award of the Year.

Manandhar is one of the big figures in the Nepali sports. He is the only athlete to have claimed a hat-trick of gold medals in the South Asian Games (SAG) marathon. He claimed gold medals in the 1984 (Kathmandu), 1985 (Dhaka) and 1987 (Kolkata) SAF Games (now renamed as SAG). His record timing of 2 hours 15 minutes 03 seconds during the Kolkata Games still stands after 27 years.

Manandhar is also the only Nepali athlete to have participated in the Olympics in four editions. After representing Nepal in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, the marathoner also took part in the next three Games in 1980 (Moscow), 1984 (Los Angeles) and 1988 (Seoul).

He began his international career with a fifth place finish in the 1973 Asian Track & Field Championship in Phillipines and ended up fourth in the next edition in South Korea.  The legendary runner called off his international career after a bronze medal win in the 1989 SAF Games in Islamabad. Ever since he has been serving Nepali athletics as a coach.

Despite implanting a pacemaker following his heart complications, Manandhar is still a regular jogger at the Dashrath Stadium.

Vesawkar was instrumental in Nepal's maiden journey to the ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh that was held from March 16 to April 6. His slogging capabilities in the death overs were crucial in Nepal's successful World Twenty20 Qualifiers campaign in the United Arab Emirates in November.

Vesawkar delivered when Nepal needed quick runs under tremendous pressure against Hong Kong in the playoff quarter-finals at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Vesawkar's three sixes in the last over of the league match against Kenya also helped Nepal chase a record 183 runs. The middle order batsman also hit unbeaten 43 runs to lead Nepal to a third-place finish in the UAE.

Para-athlete Kunwar, a former steel factory worker who lost his three left arm fingers in 2010, won a bronze medal during the world meet in Switzerland. He beat Almeda Flebia of Brazil 5-3 in the 48kg category. Kunwar was also recognised with the Fighting Spirit honour in the tournament participated in by 300 players from 55 countries.