Northlanders feature in nominee pool for Halberg Awards

Eight Northlanders have been included on the initial 55th Halberg Awards nominee list.

The Halbergs are New Zealand's biggest sporting awards show, celebrating the best of the best, and Northland has made the grade.

Portia Woodman's successful 2017 continued as she was nominated for High Performance Sport New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year alongside last year's winner Lisa Carrington, Ali Riley, Amy Satterthwaite, Roisin Giles and Sarah Goss.

Champion wood chopper Jason Wynyard has picked up a nomination for Sportsman of the Year alongside 16 other nominees including Beauden Barrett, Kane Williamson and Chris Wood.

Wynyard carried on a storied career in 2017, picking up his ninth world championship title in November at the Stihl Timbersports Championships in Lillehammer, Norway.

Seven Northlanders feature in the nominations for Team of the Year.

Woodman, Charmaine Smith, Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali and Aleisha Nelson were part of the Women's Rugby World Cup-winning Black Ferns and have been given the nod following a breakout 2017.

The Black Ferns Sevens side, which also includes Woodman, is up for the prize too.

They will be tough to beat in the category, though Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney may have something to say about that.

Emirates Team New Zealand has also been nominated for the award following their America's Cup victory in Bermuda.

Tuke was a flight controller and cyclor, while Maloney filled another cyclor position.

Andy's sister Alex Maloney is also up for the award with her Women's 49erFX teammate Molly Meech.

The pair claimed bronze at the 49erFX World Championships.

All of the Northland nominees are up for the Supreme Halberg award, won by Carrington in 2016.

The Halberg Awards judges now have the arduous task of reviewing all the nominations to decide a shortlist of finalists which will be announced in January 2017.

The 55th Halberg Awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, February 8 at Spark Arena in Auckland and televised live on Sky Sport. Other awards presented during the ceremony include New Zealand's Favourite Sporting Moment (public vote category), Sport New Zealand Leadership, Lifetime Achievement and inductees into the Sports Hall of Fame.

The annual Halberg Awards is the major fundraiser for the Halberg Foundation, the charity set up by Olympic champion Sir Murray Halberg (ONZ) in 1963 to enhance the lives of physically disabled young New Zealanders by enabling them to participate in sport and recreation.

"The year 2017 was another year of outstanding sporting success for New Zealand on the international stage," said Halberg Foundation chief executive Shelley McMeeken. "We look forward to celebrating these in February.

"The awards coincide with the Halberg Foundation's 55th anniversary and will be a wonderful night to recognise the vision of our founder Sir Murray Halberg, that all New Zealanders have the opportunity to experience the many health, fitness and wellbeing benefits of being included in sport."