New Zealand Rural Sports Awards 2023 winners announced in Palmerston North

New Zealand Rural Sports Supreme Winner Jack Jordan with Northland axeman Jason Wynyard, left, and PTS Logistics chief executive Ray Roberts. Photo / Supplied

Taumarunui farmer Jack Jordan is the New Zealand Rural Sports Supreme Winner.

The 26-year-old also won the New Zealand Rural Sportsman of the Year at the New Zealand Rural Sports Awards, announced in Palmerston North on Friday.

Jordan is on top of the world, having won the Stihl World Champions Trophy 2022 in Vienna, Austria. He competed against 16 athletes from 13 countries and broke the New Zealand national record in the first round.

He has won 10 world titles, eight individual events and two events in the NZ Stihl Timbersports Team. Jordan was first selected at age 14 to represent New Zealand as a U21 axeman to compete against the Australian U21 team.

In 2016, he won the Young New Zealand Rural Sportsperson Award.

He won his first Underhand World Title at the Rotorua A&P Show at age 17.

As a farmer, he manages a 1620ha sheep and beef farm 45 minutes from Taumarunui.

The Rural Sports Awards recognises and celebrate the extraordinary achievements and dedication of rural sports athletes and supporters.

Megan Whitehead, from Gore, is the New Zealand Rural Sportswoman of the Year.

On January 13, 2021, in a woolshed near Gore, Whitehead made history by setting a new world nine-hour solo women’s lamb shearing record of 661 - an average of 73 lambs an hour. The 26-year-old’s goal is to become the first woman to shear 700 lambs in a day.

When the Gore resident is not shearing, she is farming, which she finds just as enjoyable as her passion for shearing sports.

Cameron Leslie MNZM, from Tutakaka near Whangārei, won the Rural Sportsperson with a Disability Award.

Leslie is a paralympic swimmer, a Wheel Black and a nominee for the Laureus World Sports Awards. He is the world record-holder and three-time Paralympic gold medalist in the Men’s Individual Medley 150m SM4.

Born with a quadruple limb deficiency, Leslie walks on prosthetics with adapted arm mobility. During his downtime, he manages his lifestyle block near Tutukaka, where he is hands-on with his cows and sheep.

Reuben Alabaster, from Taihape, is the Young New Zealand Rural Sportsperson. The 19-year-old shearer was part of a five-stand world record in December 2021 and set a new solo eight-hour record of 746 lambs in December 2022.

On December 23, 2021, he shore 774 strongwool lambs in an officially controlled world five-stand nine-hours lamb shearing record tally of 2740 near Raetihi. His personal tally was the second-highest of the day, and the highest ever by anyone aged under 20 years - almost none have tried.

Kerri Williams, nee Gowler, MNZM is the winner of the Sir Brian Lochore Memorial Award for Outstanding Sportsperson from a Rural Background.

Williams (Rangitāne) is an Olympic champion and double medallist, a three-time world champion and 2019 world champion in both the coxless pair and the women’s eight. Williams was born in Raetihi and attended Nga Tawa Diocesan School in Marton.