On Wednesday at the El Pardo Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain’s National Sports Awards were held and Moto3 rider Maverick Vinales was on hand to recieve one of the prestigious awards.
The 17-year old Viñales received the award for the Breakthrough Athlete of 2011 and the award was presented to him by the HRH Infanta Elena who was doing the honours with the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family – absent was King Juan Carlos – a big motorcycle aficionado – who is still recovering from a recent hip operation.
Maverick, who finished both the 2011 and 2012 seasons in third place was accompanied by his family and by the President of the Royal Spanish Motorcycling Federation (RFME) Angel Viladoms.
Other winners included Real Madrid soccer player, Cristiano Ronaldo, Olympic sailers Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos and the coach of the country’s national soccer team, Vicente Del Bosque.
Why the National Sports committee was handing out 2011 awards at the end of 2012 is a mystery for us, so maybe 2012 World Champions Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez will be getting their special trophies next year.