Kapiti Sports Awards winners revealed last night   3 May 2016

3 May 2016

Kapiti Sports Awards winners revealed last night

Taekwon-Do World Sparring Champion Rose Biddiscombe was judged both Sportswoman and Sportsperson of the Year at the Pak’nSave Kapiti Sportsperson of the Year awards dinner on Monday night. A great turn-out of 238 guests representing the Coast’s sporting community celebrated the awards ceremony and enjoyed an entertaining and insightful interview with ex Silver Ferns great, Irene van Dyk.

Judge Peter Ellis said Rose Biddiscombe thoroughly deserved top recognition as the first NZ woman to become a World Sparring Champion, a title she earned at the Taekwon-Do World Championships in Italy last year. She was also a member of the gold medal sparring team at the same tournament.

Long track speed skater Reyon Kay was judged Sportsman of the Year. He was the 2012 Kapiti Sportsperson of the Year and he has since continued to perform well on the world stage competing in the USA, Germany and Russia and in Canada in the Olympic Oval final in March, he broke the 500m and 1,000m New Zealand records.

Ellis said he and the other two independent judges had ‘the unenviable task’ of choosing the finalists in 13 categories from among the 70 nominees in 27 sports and then deciding who the 13 winners would be.

“The overall standard was very high and we, like so many others, continue to be amazed by and to applaud the sporting talent we have on the Coast. The 14 nominees for volunteer of the years have contributed 173 years of time to the 10 sports they represent.”

“We were most impressed with the calibre of entries in the administration, volunteers and officials categories which indicate that sport here is in very good hands. There would be few small regions like ours that can boast five officials with international experience and it was no easy task to selecting the winner. However, Lucy Townend came through after her recent appointment to umpire during the Black Sticks tour of Argentina. She also went to Argentina in March to umpire during the Black Sticks build-up to the Rio Olympics.

Diana Manu was judged the Administrator of the Year for her work with and for junior touch in Kapiti and Kapiti/Horowhenua.

Kevin Smith won Coach of the Year as a high performance NZ golf coach and Matt Warren of Paekakariki Surf Lifeguards, with 31 years’ service as an active club member took the Volunteer of the Year trophy.

Viv Bould was judged Personality of the Year. She is highly regarded in netball for her coaching, coordinating and umpiring over the past eight years.

Athlete of the Year with a Disability went to swimmer Santana Chapman who has been selected to represent NZ at the 2017 Deaflympics in Turkey. She recently won bronze medals at the Asia Pacific Deaf Games in Taiwan, swimming personal bests in the 50m and 200m breaststroke events. Santana believes “disability is no barrier to personal achievements.”

“Once again the emerging sportspersons category drew a good number of very talented young men and women from a variety of sports including for the first time, ten-pin bowling, which has not previously featured in our awards,” Ellis said.
“In selecting ten-pin bowler Dayna Haylock as Emerging Sportswoman of the Year and softballer Jayden Stratford as Emerging Sportsman, we took into consideration that although not major sports locally, the two competed against some of the best in this country and overseas.”

16-year-old Dayna Haylock represented NZ in ten-pin bowling in Malaysia last year and Melbourne this year. She is a National Junior Youth Championships title-holder and is a Junior Ladies champion.

Stratford was selected in the NZ Junior Black Sox tour to Prague and competed in the European Men’s Super Cup last year and has been selected in the Junior Black Sox to compete in next year’s World Championships.

The Club of the Year trophy was awarded to the Kapiti Bowling Club. This is a very successful and well-managed organisation and the recipient of a Bowls NZ Gold Award.

The Team of the Year trophy went to the Paekakariki Open Women’s Surf Boat crew, which had an outstanding season including winning gold and silver medals at the recent National Championships. They also make a significant community commitment as volunteer lifeguards.

The Lotto Sport Makers Award was presented to Paul Tessier, which recognised his role as an unpaid volunteer and comprises a $500 voucher for the recipient plus another $500 voucher for the Kapiti club, code or sport of the recipient’s choice. Paul has been involved in hockey since he was a teenager and has clocked up more than 45 years of involvement and voluntary service as a player, coach, manager, umpire and technical official. He was one of eight elected members on Hockey New Zealand's Youth Council, a position he has held for nearly 6 years and in 2012 he was a recipient of a Hockey New Zealand Silver Service Award recognising 20-24 years’ service to hockey.

To see the full list of winners go to www.kapitispoy.org.nz

ENDS

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