The two female finalists for Kerala's most prestigious sports award, Manorama Sports Star 2020-21, have been announced by Malayala Manorama in collaboration with Santa Monica Study Abroad.
K V Athulya (football) and S Soorya (vollyball) are the two final contenders decided by online/SMS voting.
They were among the six finalists chosen by a panel that included Olympian T C Yohannan, journalist and sports pundit N S Madhavan, and former cricketer and coach P Balachandran for the prestigious prize. After receiving the most votes, Athulya and Soorya advanced to the final round. Sanju Samson (cricket), Sandra Babu (athletics), and Nihal Sarin (chess) were among those who did not make the cut.
The Manorama Sports Star Award and a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh will be handed to the first-place winner, while trophies and purses of Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1 lakh will be given to the second and third place winners, respectively. H S Prannoy, a world-class shuttler, won the inaugural Manorama Sports Star Award in 2017. In 2018 and 2019, the winners were athlete Jinson Johnson and special cricketer Aneesh P Rajan.
