The 17th edition of the NSJF Pulsar Sports Award will be held semi-virtually on January 12, the organiser Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF) announced in Kathmandu on Sunday.

"We are bound to hold the award ceremony virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic which has taken its toll globally," said NSJF president Devendra Subedi at a programme organised to announce the date of the award ceremony and ink the title sponsorship deal with Hansaraj Hulaschand and Company Pvt Ltd.

"Only the nominees of the award, invitees and personnel required to run the ceremony will be present during the award function. We will try to keep the number of individuals below 50," said Subedi, adding that they would set up a studio for the virtual event.

The annual award would see the presence of more than 1,000 individuals including players, sports officials and other dignitaries in the past editions.

The Hansaraj Hulaschand and Company renewed the title sponsorship deal for the 10th year in a row. As per the agreement, Hansaraj Hulaschand will provide around Rs 3 million, Rs 1.1 million of which will be in cash apart from four Pulsar motorbikes and gift hampers. NSJF president Durga Nath Subedi and Hansaraj Hulaschand director Abhimanyu Golchha signed the deal.

"We have been supporting the NSJF in their purpose of giving recognition to the sportspersons of the country," said Golchha reiterating that they would continue with the support for years to come. "The start of the year was difficult for all of us and live sport was what I and most of the youths of the country missed in the first four months of lockdown. I think the Sports Award will play a crucial role in changing the mood of Nepal in a depressing year."

The NSJF will award a team and individuals in 10 different categories including male, female, youth and coach of the year. Other categories include para-athlete, people’s choice, lifetime achievement and special and team of the year awards.

Asian Sports Journalists award will also be given during the ceremony. The award for the journalist will be presented as per the recommendation by the AIPS-Asia, federation of Asian sports journalists, and a selection committee headed by NSJF secretary Gobinda Regmi will pick up the nominees for other categories.

Lifetime achievement award will be presented to a sportsperson for his/her long-term contribution towards sports and the special award will be presented for special achievement and contribution to sports.

The sports journalists forum will pick up five nominees each in male, female, coach, youth, peoples’ choice and special award categories while the winners of lifetime, para-athlete, team of the year and international journalists will be directly revealed during the award function. Peoples’ Choice award will be given on the basis of votes from sports journalists, SMS voting and Facebook likes.