Sporting feats to remember in cyclonic year to forget

Verdon Bartlett runs on to the field for his 100th game for Ngati Porou East Coast and his Kaupoi teammates paid tribute with a 29-11 Heartland Championship win over King Country. Picture by Paul Rickard

A one-name unstoppable force of nature will be the enduring memory of 2023 for Tairāwhiti.

A cyclone called Gabrielle — the French feminine form of the name Gabriel meaning “God is my strength” — tore its way through the district on February 13-14, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake.

Sport was among the victims.

Extensive damage caused to unsuspecting waka located beside rivers, flooded playing fields and golf courses, obliterated roads cutting off access put sport on the backburner for many as the region began a recovery that continues today.

But once the water receded. Once silt was cleared. Once those affected got back into something near a normal daily life, this sports-mad region dusted the cobwebs off their choice of weapon, fished the boots out of a dust-covered box in the garage and resumed their passion for sport A to Z.

Whether it was in the backyard, the park down the road, somewhere along the highways or across the ocean, Tairāwhiti was represented with pride.

Keen as ever to record, celebrate, highlight and review the action was the Gisborne Herald sports department.

The irony is not lost that after the flooding, there was something of a drought local sports news-wise.

But that was a mere blip when we went back through the year and realised, once again, how much Tairāwhiti sportspeople had achieved . . . often against the odds.

Gabrielle may have had Messi-like domination from its whirlwind visit but there were plenty of other names that made a cyclonic impact.

Over today and tomorrow, Herald Sport is highlighting a bunch of those — some on a grand international scale; others on the lesser-heralded local stage — starting with . . .

Alicia: Alicia Hoskin will join a rare group of Tairāwhiti sports stars to compete in two Olympic Games at Paris in 2024 after a stellar year on the water. Hoskin combined with Dame Lisa Carrington to win the K2 title at the Canoe Sprint World Cup in Hungary in May and three months later was a member of the K4 women’s gold medal-winning crew at at the world champs in Germany — the firstKiwi crew to win a K4 world crown.

SAFFI: Saffi Vette won her first World Surf League qualifying series title — the Marouba Pro in Sydney — in March, and three months later at the ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador, earned one of the Oceania continental qualifying spots for the Paris Olympics. Inspired by her late father Andrew, Vette told a captivated audience at Makaraka School during a visit that “losing is part of life and you learn from it . . . the secret is to not give up and to keep trying”.

SYDNEE: OK, there is a fairly obvious connection between these first three names. All Tairāwhiti, all young women, all with an Olympic dream. Judoka Sydnee Andrews is chasing hers and after some huge results in 2023 — including a New Zealand first Round 1 victory at the prestigious Hungary Masters, silver at the Rome European Open and bronze at the Zagreb Grand Prix — she finds herself sitting 24th on the world rankings in her over-78-kilogram division and, more importantly, 22nd on the Olympic rankings.

RENEE: Another young Gizzy female making her mark on the world stage, Renee Holmes cemented her place as the starting fullback for the Black Ferns this year after playing her part in the 2022 world cup success. Holmes also starred for Matatū in the Super Aupiki final, scoring 23 points in a 33-31 win over Chiefs Manawa in the final. And it was her pass that set up yet another Tairawhiti-produced star on the rise — Kelsey Teneti — for her first-ever try for the Black Ferns in a 52-21 Pacific Fours Series win over Canada in Ottawa.

KALEY: Kaley Knight made the New Zealand team for the Under-19 Women’s Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa. The New Zealanders got to the semifinals, where they were beaten by India. Knight also consolidated her place in the Northern Brave women’s team.

MERRAN: Merran Hain has pretty much done it all in the sport of equestrian over 70 years so her induction into the Equestrian Sport NZ Hall of Fame was perhaps no surprise. Hain is believed to be the only New Zealander to represent her country in showjumping, dressage and eventing.

MICHAEL: Michael Pickett is the equal-fastest freestyle swimmer in New Zealand history. He clocked 22.11 seconds in the 50m free at the national open champs in April in qualifying for the world champs. “This means the world to me,” he said afterwards.

TAYLER: Tayler Reid has a second Olympic Games in his sights. The triathlete was part of the silver medal-winning mixed relay team at the World Triathlon Sprint and Relay Champs in Germany in July, picked up silver at the ITU race in New Plymouth in March and a third in the Super League championship opening round in London in August. If you want to see an example of absolutely everything being left on the battlefield, just watch Tayler Reid and his triathlon cohorts at the end of a race.

JAMISON: Jamison Gibson-Park may be wearing the green jersey of Ireland on the international rugby scene but he will always be one of us. Hal;fback Gibson-Park only played a couple of games for the Emerald Iles in the 2023 Six Nations due to injury but one of those was their 29-16 defeat of England to clinch the Grand Slam. He was also a crucial part of Ireland’s Rugby World Cup campaign and was one of the stand-out players at the Cup despite Ireland losing to the All Blacks in that memorable 28-24 quarterfinal in which Gibson-Park scored a try,

GRANT: Those who followed the famous “Road to Spain” 1982 World Cup campaign of the All Whites in the 80s and the glory years of Gisborne City will fondly remember the all-or-nothing style of midfielder Grant Turner. A man who never took a step back, Turner wrote his name into New Zealand footballing history with his stunning 84th-minute header in a 2-0 cup qualifying win against Australia in Sydney in May 1981 — a goal still talked about today. Turner died on February 28 after a long battle with cancer. He was 64.

VERDON: On September 23, 36-year-old Verdon Bartlett ran on to Ruatoria’s Whakarua Park as the fourth centurion in Ngāti Porou East Coast rugby history, having debuted in 2008. “Verds is the epitome of a true NPEC cowboy — selfless, hardworking, a family man, committed,” former Coast coach and All Black Hosea Gear said. The Coast marked the occasion with a 29-11 win over King Country.