Golfer Kerry Mountcastle is a finalist for Senior Sports Personality. PHOTO/FILE
Voting opens on tomorrow
SPORTS AWARDS
CHRIS COGDALE
[email protected]
A high calibre of nominations is the highlight of the finalists named for the 2019 Wairarapa Times-Age Sports Awards.
Seth Rance, 2018 Supreme Award winner, who starred for the Central Stags Plunket Shield and Super Smash T20 winning teams, is joined by Commonwealth Games silver medal winner Black Stick Dane Lett, Eisenhower Trophy golfer Kerry Mountcastle and middle distance runner Max Spencer, who has earned an athletics scholarship with Northeastern University in Boston, USA, in the Back in Action Senior Sports Personality of the Year category.
The Hub Senior Sports Team of the Year will be decided among beaten Lochore Cup finalists Wairarapa-Bush, two-time Wairarapa-Bush Tui Cup champions Gladstone, Wellington Premier Men’s Hockey runners-up Dalefield, and the Wairarapa United women’s football team which finished second in the Central W-League.
International rugby referee and 2017 Supreme Award winner Rebecca Mahoney, who became the first woman to referee a Mitre 10 championship game, is joined by fellow rugby referee Alistair Payne, swimming official Tania Lindop and Wairarapa’s leading hockey referee Peter Sigvertsen as finalists in the Masterton District Council Official of the Year.
The Property Law Services and Reeves Lawyers Coach of the Year has Wairarapa-Bush Heartland Rugby coach Joe Harwood up against Gladstone’s club rugby championship winning coach Steve Thompson, Wairarapa College 1st XI football coach Aaron Perkins, whose team made the Wellington Secondary School Premiership for the first time, and athletics coach Mark Harris, who has guided several athletes to national and international success.
The GJ Gardner Homes Sports Club of the Year features Wairarapa United, whose men’s team made the quarterfinals of the Chatham Cup and women’s team finished runner-up in the Central W-League, Gladstone Junior Tennis Club, who had 50 children and seven teams in junior interclub – a first for any club, Featherston Wrestling Club, who have gone through a major revival with members competing with success at national championships, and Giants Softball, who had three of their five teams make finals in the Hutt Valley Championships.
Multiple medal winning athletes Josh Taylor, Jack Lewington and Ben Taylor are joined by Hannah van Wijk, who is a member of the ParaSwimmingNZ national development squad, as finalists in the Mitre 10 Mega Masterton Disabled Sports Personality of the Year.
The highly competitive Jennian Homes Youth Sports Personality of the Year attracted 23 nominations. The finalists are equestrian Lucy Marshall – a national champion in the Mounted Games at the Horse of the Year, Hurricanes Schools and New Zealand Barbarians rugby representative Sam Smith, national age group swimming medallist Bridget Allan, and New Zealand Secondary School Athletics silver medalist in the hammer Joe Quinn.
The Stirling Sports Youth Sports Team of the Year will be decided from the Wairarapa-Wellington Area Pony Club’s Mounted Games team, made up of five Wairarapa riders, which won the National Mounted Games Championship, the St Matthews 1st XI girls’ cricket team, which qualified for the Gillette Venus National Championship, the Wairarapa College 1st XI football team who played in the Wellington Premiership for the first time, and the unbeaten Wairarapa Under 15 girl’s cricket team, which had four players selected for Central Districts.
Breadcraft Junior Sports Personality of the Year finalists are Amelia Malcolm-Solly – the winner of three national titles at the Horse of the Year, New Zealand age group wrestling champion Jackson Sargent, multiple medal winning athlete Lyon Rodger, and promising cricketer Samuel Payne, who scored two centuries and averaged 149.88 over the season.
Finalists in the Osborne Group Junior Sports Team of the Year are the Douglas Park Rippa Rugby team, which qualified for the national championships, the Featherston Wrestling Club, which won numerous medals at the National and North Island championships, the Gladstone Gold Junior Tennis team, which won the Primary Schools Tennis Championship for the third consecutive year, and the Greytown JCB hardball team that won their junior cricket competition, losing only one game.
The Masterton District Council Junior Official of the Year finalists include promising football referee Alex Dahlberg, basketball and netball umpire Mackenzie Batchelor, netball umpire Charlotte Hamill-Harris, and hockey referee Oliver Williams.
Wairarapa United chairwoman Gill Flower is joined by Andrew Linton, who has a long history of administration in cycling and other sports, long-time harriers’ administrator Carol MacDonald, and Wairarapa Cricket Operations and Development Manager Simon Roseingrave as the finalists in the Copthorne Solway Park Administrator of the Year.
The finalists in the House of Travel Volunteer of the Year include Andrea Parker for her efforts in equestrian sports, Nicola Murray – a tireless worker for the Masterton Swimming Club, Derrick Morris for his commitment to the Wairarapa Pistol and Shooting Club and Ian Buick, who organised clay bird shooting at Wairarapa College.
Rathkeale College, St Matthews Collegiate, Solway College and Wairarapa College made the final four in the Hunting and Fishing College of the Year.
Property Brokers Primary School of the Year finalists are Douglas Park School, Lakeview School, St Matthew’s Collegiate and Whareama School.
Voting for the awards opens tomorrow and runs until 5pm on Friday, May 17.
The winners, along with the Wairarapa Times-Age Supreme Award, TRC Toyota Lifetime Achievement Award and Challenge Greytown People’s Choice Award will be announced at the Awards Ceremony at Copthorne Solway Park on Wednesday, June 19.
