Montag, from The University of Melbourne, also won the national and Oceania Championship titles in the same event and finished fourth in the women’s 20km race walk at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon.

In the course of 2022 she also achieved two personal bests and broke the 18-year-old Australian 20km walk record.

Among others honoured at the event in Brisbane’s City Hall was Tim Hodge from Western Sydney University, winner of the award for the most outstanding performance by a student-athlete with a disability after winning two golds and a bronze at the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira.

He also set a world record in the men’s 200m individual medley SM9 class and won gold and silver at Birmingham 2022.

Rae Anderson, from The University of Sydney, won the award for the most outstanding performance by an indigenous student-athlete after making her Winter Games debut at Beijing 2022.

Rae, 10th in the women’s giant slalom standing event and seventh in the women’s slalom standing category, thus became one of the select few to compete for Australia at both the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games, having competed in athletics at Rio 2016. 

The team of the year award went to the Macquarie University Men’s 3x3 Basketball Team which won the UniSport Nationals in Hobart and then won silver representing Australia at the International University Sports Federation University World Cup in Istanbul.

Mark Sinderberry, chief executive of UniSport Australia, hailed the return of sport to university campuses over the last year following the prolonged impact of the global pandemic.

"The past few years challenged the industry," he said.

"However, the work that members have done on campus to reignite student engagement in health and wellbeing should be congratulated."

More than 90 guests from the university sector, including student-athletes, life members and industry partners, attended the awards night.

Quennie Laurentia, from The University of Melbourne, won the female student-athlete of the year award.

She led the University’s badminton team to victory in the Big Blue Varsity Challenge and gold at the UniSport Nationals.

The male student-athlete of the year award went to cyclist Alastair Christie-Johnson, winner of four individual medals competing for the RMIT Redbacks team at the 2022 UniSport Nationals in Perth and was named as the UniSport Nationals Overall Cycling champion.

The most outstanding university sport project/programme award went to the  RMIT Sports Academy.

The award for the most outstanding contribution by a student volunteer went to Alex Smyth from RMIT University, who led a team of over 150 students to the 2022 UniSport Nationals in Perth where he competed as an openly gay student-athlete.

He is also, as a UniSport Australia inclusion ambassador, heavily involved in the planning and delivery of RMIT’s annual Pride-in-Sport event.

The club leadership award went to The Melbourne University Women’s Football Club for its work in the areas of inclusion, mental health and policy development across areas including alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and safe transport.

Andrew Truong from the University of South Australia was named as official of the year.

As a coach, team manager and committee member Truong devotes significant time to the development and success of the UniSA Swimming Club.