World Rowing Champion Julia Edward has capped off a golden year on the rowing circuit by receiving the prestigious Supreme Award at the annual Bay of Plenty Sports Awards.

Hosted by Sport Bay of Plenty, the 2014 edition held at the Rotorua's Energy Events Centre brought the region together to recognise and celebrate outstanding achievement by Bay athletes, coaches and officials in the last 12 months.

Sophie Mackenzie and Julia Edward won gold in the women's lightweight double scull at the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam. Photo: Supplied.

Edward's highlight for this year - and possibly in her career to date - was not only winning gold in the women's lightweight double scull at the World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam in August, but also in a world-best time.

Edward, from Rotorua, and rowing partner Sophie Mackenzie were also named finalists in the 2014 World Rowing Female Crew of the Year category.

This validates Julia's focus to remain a specialist in the lightweight double scull, which she has her sights set on for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Bay of Plenty Sports Awards judge Hamish Ashton says the judging process of deciding finalists and winners has been particularly difficult this year, creating some robust discussion amongst the judging panel.

Hamish says: 'When you have champions in diverse sports every little detail is considered when deciding who is the ultimate winner. It is a challenging but very rewarding process.

'Having been involved with the awards for a number of years now it has been great to follow the progress of some of our college athletes through to the international stage.

'There is a huge, but largely unrecognised, amount of talent here in the Bay.”

Earlier in the evening Julia was awarded the Holland Beckett Lawyers Sportswomen of the Year award, leading an outstanding field of category recipients including Peter Burling who took out the Bayleys Real Estate Sportsman of the Year award for the second year in a row.

Water sports shone through this year with multiple accolades for Surf Life Saving, Rowing and Sailing receiving awards throughout the evening.

Internationally recognised rugby referee Glen Jackson was awarded the MOREFM Official of the Year for the second year running.

The Farmer AutoVillage International Sportsperson of the Year was presented to Valerie Adams, who continues her legendary status by winning gold at both the 2014 International Association of Athletics World Indoor Championships and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The AquaPlus Club of the Year was awarded to the Devoy Squash and Fitness Club in Tauranga, which has undergone significant membership growth and event planning over the past 12 months.

A new category, the P2P Physio Junior Team of the Year, was awarded to the Papamoa Surf Life Saving Club Youth Team who have a long list of achievements including being crowned the Rescue 2014 youth world champions.