Horn fights off legends to land top gong

Less than two weeks before he defends his title against British slugger Gary Corcoran at Suncorp Stadium, Horn outpointed a stellar field at the Brisbane Convention Centre last night to take the top gong at the 23rd Annual Queensland Sport Awards.

The mild-mannered Fighting Schoolteacher faced a tough battle from 10 other award contenders, including Queensland and Australian rugby league captain Cameron Smith, and world title holders, hurdler Sally Pearson, swimmer Emily Seebohm and sailor Mat Belcher.

An audience of 670 was on hand to cheer the champ, who, in one of the most astonishing victories in Australian sport, overcame all-time boxing great Manny Pacquiao to win the WBO welterweight title before more than 51,000 people at Suncorp Stadium on July 2.

BELOW: SEE THE QLD SPORTS HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

Pacquiao had held 11 world championships across eight weight divisions in a title reign that lasted nearly 20 years. However, while he had Horn badly hurt in the ninth round, the challenger from Acacia Ridge roared back to a victory that shocked the boxing world.

The fight was billed as “The Battle of Brisbane’’ and promoter Dean Lonergan last night won the award for Queensland Sport Event of the Year.

Also on Thursday night, Hawthorn great Jason Dunstall was elevated to Legend status, while Olympians, rower Duncan Free, swimmer Jessicah Schipper and triathlete Miles Stewart, along with world water ski champion Emma Sheers, were inducted into the Queensland Sports Hall of Fame.

Horn was accompanied to the awards presentation by his wife Jo, who is expecting the couple’s first child in January, and his trainer and manager Glenn Rushton, who is supervising preparations for Horn’s first defence of the title against Corcoran on December 13.

The victory caps an amazing run for Horn, who released his autobiography The Hornet and who has also won the Don Award this year as Australia’s most inspirational athlete and the GQ award as Sportsman of the Year.

The Queensland Sport Team of the Year Award last night went to the Queensland Origin Maroons for their come-from-behind victory over New South Wales.

The Courier-Mail’s People’s Choice Sporting Moment of the Year, a new award in this year’s program, went to Johnathan Thurston’s last-gasp sideline conversion to give the Queensland Origin team a series-saving 18-16 win in Game 2 of this year’s battle for interstate rugby league supremacy.

QLD SPORTS HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

Duncan Free’s hobby took him to an Olympic rowing gold medal in 2008 and it delivered him into the Queensland Sports Hall of Fame.

Free joined fellow Beijing gold medallist Jessica Schipper (swimming), triathlete Miles Stewart and world waterski champion Emma Sheers as inductees at The Courier-Mail/Channel 7 Queensland Sport Star of the Year Award at the Brisbane Convention Centre.

The top gong, as Sports Star of the Year, was claimed by WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn.

Free, who with Olympic partner Drew Ginn was also a dual world champion in the coxless pair, said the call from the organising committee came “out of the blue.’’

“It certainly came by surprise, to be acknowledged with legends of various sports is humbling,’’ Free said.

“I started rowing when I was 12 for the fun of it, it was casual and social to the point it was a hobby and throughout my whole rowing career I always saw it as a hobby.

“You always strived to be the best you could, trained hard and tried to push yourself to the limits and that led to selection on teams and some results came along with that.

“But I started with the reason to have some fun and I kept that my whole career.’’

Hawthorn great and AFL Hall of Famer Jason Dunstall was elevated to Legend status in the Hall of Fame.

The Courier-Mail’s People’s Choice Sporting Moment of the Year went to Johnathan Thurston’s last-gasp sideline conversation to give the Queensland Origin team a series saving 18-16 win in Game Two of this year’s series.

The Maroons were also judged Queensland Sport Team of the Year.

Other winners were Brisbane Bandits back-to-back ABL Championship coach Dave Nilsson who took out the Queensland Sport Coach of the Year.

Sunshine Coast backstroke swimmer Kaylee McKeown was The Courier-Mail/Channel 7 Queensland Junior Sport Star of the Year.

The Peter Lacey Award for Sporting Excellence went to canoeist Alyce Burnett for her maiden K1 1000m at the World Canoe Sprint Championships in the Czech Republic earlier this year.