Northland's Paralympic gold medallist Cameron Leslie won the sportsman category at the inaugural Attitude Awards on Wednesday night but still is disappointed that his achievements have yet to be recognised in wider sporting circles.
Leslie said getting the award was a thrill after the disappointment of missing out on a major
prize at Northland Sports Awards two weeks ago.
"We talked to Sport Northland about how they judged their awards and I must say we've been disappointed with how they've dealt with it," he said yesterday.
"It seems that someone can achieve gold at the highest level that someone with a disability can achieve and yet that's still not good enough for a major award."
Leslie said he realised it was a tough ask to even compare the achievements of athletes from different sports and didn't want to disparage the winners - but felt it was right to speak up.
"I don't want to be negative about Sam [Warriner] winning, she's done really well this year and is an awesome athlete ... but I still feel disappointed."
Sport Northland's Colleen Atchison said the organisation did try and put disabled athletes on a level playing field with other athletes.
"I wasn't on the judging panel but I'm sure that Cameron's nomination would have been looked at quite seriously ... and it might have been a case of the world champion being regarded more highly than the Olympics, which is just one event," she said.
Leslie said it was an honour to receive the inaugural Attitude Award - developed to honour the outstanding achievements of New Zealanders living with disabilities.
He was one of three finalists for the Sportsman Award and won the award after his outstanding performance at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.
He won gold in the Individual Medley swimming final, setting a new world record and knocking six seconds of his personal best time in the process.
Fellow swimmer Sophie Pascoe took out the Attitude Sportswoman Award after her triple gold medal and one silver medal haul in September.
The awards were conceived by RSVP Productions Ltd, producers of the weekly series Attitude, which screens on TV One on Sundays.
