Baker's award win dedicated to 'papa'

Outstanding Wairarapa sportswoman Shakira Baker has again been named overall winner of the Wairarapa Maori Sports Awards and has revealed she had a special incentive to win this year.

Her mother Simone, who accepted the award on her daughter's behalf on Thursday night due to Shakira being in Britain with the Black Ferns, yesterday said the win "had been for papa".

Shakira, 20, was very close to her grandad John Baker, of Papawai, who died five weeks ago and who was the doyen of a family whose sporting record reads like a Who's Who of New Zealand sport.

Mr Baker was a prominent sportsman of yesteryear, particular in rugby and hockey and married Diana Gillies, thereby combining with a family also notable for its sporting achievers.

Included on the family's sporting tree are hockey reps Dee Taylor, Ngahina Gillies and Mahe Baker, All Black trialists Carlos Baker and Charlie Kaka, and current Hawke's Bay rugby rep Gillies Kaka.

Many other family members excelled at sports including softball and competitive swimming.

Shakira's older brother Cyrus, 22, is a former New Zealand Secondary Schools rugby rep and is now playing rugby professionally in Spain.

Simone Baker said when she accepted the award for her daughter on Thursday she deliberately didn't mention the emotional link Shakira had to her recently deceased grandfather.

"I knew if I did I would break down in tears.

"We had a fair idea Shakira would win and she had said if she did it would be for papa."

Shakira Baker scored the Black Ferns' only try in the second test in the loss against England in Aldershot earlier this week and is due to take the field in the third and final test of the series which is to be shown on New Zealand television immediately after the All Blacks match against England tomorrow morning.

She is not only a Black Fern but also a New Zealand women's sevens player, plays club rugby for Eketahuna in the Wellington competition, and won the overall award in the Wairarapa Maori Sports Awards last year also.

Other winners who were presented with awards on Thursday were:

• 
  Male Tai Tamariki - Dallas Swaneveld.
• 
  Female Tai Tamariki - Georgia Atkinson
• 
  Junior male - Tane Workman.
• 
  Junior female - Sade Atkinson.
• 
  Senior male - Kieran Te Whare.
• 
  Senior female - Shakira Baker.
• 
  Team - Eketahuna Women's Outdoor Bowls Triple Team.
• 
  Coach - Mark Harris.
• 
  Service to Sport - Leigh Reiri