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Cream of Northland sportspeople win awards
posted: 5 December 2011 Sport Thought with Brent Eastwood
With the Fullers Great Sights Kerikeri Half Marathon all done and dusted, Sport Northland’s attention now turns to the Konica Minolta Northland Sports Awards function tomorrow night.
This is the premier sports awards function in the region, bringing together and acknowledging the best of the best from each Northland sporting code, including players, teams, coaches, officials and administrators.
This year’s nominees are again a who’s who of current Northland sporting elite – on the men’s side names like Tim Southee, James Marshall, Blair Tuke and Andrew Murdoch and on the women’s side names such as Fiona Southern, Sam Warriner and a host of Black Sticks.
But there are also young athletes, which although not household names (yet!), are also starting to dominate their codes – youngsters such as Tara Lawrence (shooting), Kadin Neho (golf), Nicky Roberts (karate) and Toni Atkinson (water skiing), all of whom have already made their mark on their chosen sport at a national level.
In the early part of the evening, each individual sports code will be recognised with their own male and female winner, something unique to Northland when compared to other regional awards throughout New Zealand.
Awards are then made for Official, Administrator, Coach and Masters Sportsperson of the Year, while the prestigious Garry Frew Memorial Award for the Northland U21 Sportsperson of the Year is always eagerly anticipated.
And this year the Northern Advocate have come on board to promote the People’s Choice Award for the first time – votes have now been counted and the winner out of Mike Delany, Kris Kjeldsen, Janet Agnew, Donna Logan and Jason Barrel will be announced tomorrow night.
Then come the big ones for the night – the Team of the Year, the Brian Maunsell Memorial Award for Service to Sport and the two biggies, the Sportswomen and Sportsman of the Year. The overall Northland Sportperson of the Year is then chosen from all nominees.
Another eagerly anticipated part of the night over recent years is the wait to find out who will be inducted into the Northland Legends of Sports. 20 Northland sporting super-stars have so far made the grade, with another two to be added to the illustrious list this year.
Guest speaker on the night will be recently retired Breakers basketball star Paul Henare.
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