The shooter George Achilleos, the judoka Sofia Asvesta, the Mens football team of Omonia of Nicosia and Women football team of Apollon Ladies of Limassol recieved awards as the best athletes and teams of Cyprus for 2020.
 
The 48th Cyprus Sports Writers Union best athletes award ceremony took place on Thursday evening at the Municipal Theater of Nicosia. Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades addressed the ceremony with an visual message. This year’s ceremony, with the slogan “Let’s Restart! Sports, a vehicle for restarting society!”, sent the message that the return of athletes to action shows the way to overcome the dark tunnel of the pandemic.
 
The ceremony, due to the restrictions, was held with few guests. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Adamos Adamou, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, Prodromos Prodromou, the President of KOA, Andreas Michaelides, the advisor to the President on sports issues, Foivos Zachariadis and the President of the Cyprus Olympic Committee George Chrysostomou, were among the guests who attended the ceremony.
 
President Anastasiades in his prerecorded video message said that the year 2020 was marked by mass cancellations of top sporting events around the world, most notably the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, something that had a negative effect to the athletes, who were forced to differentiate or even abstain from their training activities.
 
He added that the Government recognizing the particularly difficult position in which the athletes and the sports clubs found themselves, decided the surpluses from the budget of the Cyprus Sports Organisation for 2020, amounting to half a million euro, were distributed to sports clubs, based on specific sports criteria.
 
President Anastasiades said that the Cabinet approved last January, a Special Expenditure Plan amounting to 600 thousand euro, with the aim of supporting employees in Non-Profit Sports Organizations. In addition, he stated, a financial support of 300 thousand euro has been provided to the athletes who will participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games.