Rob Hawkins wins third straight International Rugby League Golden Boot
England's Rob Hawkins has won the International Rugby League wheelchair Golden Boot for the third year running, becoming the first player in any form of rugby league to win three successive awards.
The Golden Boot goes to the best player in the world over a calendar year. It has categories for men, women and wheelchair players, and this year's winners were named in the BBC Sport report.
Hawkins is only the second player in rugby league history to win the award three times. Only Johnathan Thurston, the Australian playmaker, has done so before him. Hawkins's standout performance came at the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup, where he scored 19 tries for England. Five of them came in the 86-28 semi-final win over Australia.
Rugby league is played with 13 players a side, and a try is worth four points. Wheelchair rugby league follows the same basic idea, with players in specially built chairs. Scoring at that rate across a tournament is rare in any version of the code.
The men's award went to New Zealand full-back Kalyn Ponga. A full-back is the player who stands furthest back, the last line of defence and often the first runner when the ball is kicked long. Ponga's win adds to a growing list of honours for a player who has spent much of his career at the back.
New Zealand's Stacey Waaka took the women's Golden Boot. Her win places her among the top names in the women's game, which has grown quickly in recent years and now attracts large crowds and wider attention across the sport.
Taken together, the three winners show how wide the Golden Boot's reach is. Each award is decided on one player's year, and each marks a different path through the game. For Hawkins, the record now sits in a small group of players who have been named the world's best three times.
Hawkins now joins Thurston in a select group at the top of the award's history. His three straight wins will likely be remembered as one of the most consistent runs the award has seen.
