The finalists for the Bradford Sports Awards on Friday, May 17 have been announced by organisers Active Bradford, with one of the city’s premier boxers up for arguably the night’s biggest award.

Tasif Khan is the current WBO Africa Super Flyweight champion, while he also holds the title for the WBC Silver Super Flyweight division.

He had already had a good start to his week, as he brough his belts down to Horsfall on Saturday and posed on the pitch with them and the Bradford (Park Avenue) side ahead of their Northern Premier League Premier Division game against Worksop Town on Non-League Day.

And now, days later, he has been announced as one of the two finalists for the Bradford Sports Awards’ Sportsman of the Year, where he will hope to take home the prize at Life Centre Events Bradford in less than two months' time.

His only rival for the crown is former Bradford Bulls player Ross Peltier, whose stellar rugby league career in the Championship and League 1 was complemented by his 11 caps for Jamaica, including playing at the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.

The Bradfordian is now a prominent Green Party member.

The Sportswoman of the Year award is also between two competitors, with talented youngster Siobhan Haley, of Platinum Boxing Club in Queensbury, being one of them, following her winning the English Schools title last May in Surrey.

Haley also reached the European Schoolgirls Championships semi-finals in Slovenia in August 2023, as well as the last four at the Golden Girl Box Cup in Sweden last month.

She is going up against another teenager in Bradford Amateur Rowing Club’s Isabel Lancaster, who has been part of multiple Great Britain squads over the last couple of years.

There are some other standout nominations, with the award-winning Gracie Barra Bradford Brazilian jiu-jitsu academy going up against another national success story in Bradford Olympian Trampoline Club for Young Club/Team of the Year.

Coach of the Year is between long-serving tennis mentor Nalette Tucker and Bradford Bulls and Great Britain’s Andy Brown, who is a key figure in the world of ice hockey.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Andy Brown gives instructions to his Bradford Bulldogs players.Andy Brown gives instructions to his Bradford Bulldogs players. (Image: Alien Aerial Photography.)

The Special Recognition prize is between Bowling Old Lane legend Geoff Hanson, who has previous won a lifetime achievement award from the Yorkshire Cricket Board for his work at the club, and Ian Rose.

Rose, who is visually impaired, is a VIC Supervisor with Bradford Council, while also being a resilience and motivational speaker, following on from a 22-year judo career, which saw him become European Champion four times, as well as World Champion in 1995.

He also won bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and silver eight years later at the Games in Athens.

For a full list of the nominees, please follow the embedded link to Active Bradford’s website.