Athletes and volunteers are recognised by the prizes and are being handed out during the Inas General Assembly currently taking place in Brisbane.

Lenine Cuhna of Portugal has won the Best Male Athlete Award after earning 183 medals at Inas, International Paralympic Committee and European level competitions during his athletics career.

There was another Portuguese winner as Antonio Sampaio has been given the Unsung Hero Award.

He helped establish Portugal’s National Association of Sports for Mental Deficiency in 1990 and still acts as a volunteer with the organisation.

Sampaio has also served as a cycling director on Inas and Inas Europe Executive and Technical Committees.

Best Female went to Poland’s Barbara Niewiedzial, who has won three Paralympic golds during her athletics career and is the T20 world record holder in the 1,500, 800 and 400 metres.

Inas have also inducted Australian Marie Little into their Hall of Fame.

In 1985, she founded the Australian Sport and Recreation Association for Persons with Integration Difficulties and also serve as its President from until 2011.

She also co-founded the Australian Paralympic Committee, of which she was the first female President, and was an Executive Committee member at Inas.

Little died in 2014 and the award she will received as part of her inauguration to the Hall of Fame will be collected by her daughter.