Campbell wins Sports Personality of the Year

Wairarapa College golfer Ben Campbell headed off some formidable opposition to win the major trophy up for grabs at the 2008 Wairarapa secondary school awards held at Rathkeale College last night.
Campbell was named overall champion, or more correctly Sports Personality of the Year, after having earlier been announced as Sportsman of the Year for the second successive year.
It was a deserved honour for Campbell who has consistently taken the golfing limelight over the past 12 months.
Perhaps his most notable success in that time came last January when he upset two time winner Danny Lee to win the New Zealand under-23 title at the Hastings Golf Club's course at Bridge Pa. Campbell's rounds of 72,20, 72 and 73 gave him a thrilling one shot advantage over Lee, who is now the number one ranked amateur player in the world.
Early in May Campbell won the Wairarapa men's open title at Lansdowne, an event which was reduced to 54 holes because of inclement weather. There too Campbell's cool temperament stood him in good stead as he won a playoff with Wairarapa College teammate Michael Schofield with a birdie on the third hole of sudden death.
Shortly after that success Campbell was chosen as Wairarapa's Senior Sports Personality of the Year and he earned selection in New Zealand teams to play in the Australia Junior Masters in Perth and the junior trans-Tasman clash against Australia where he distinguished himself by being the only Kiwi not to lose a singles match.
This year has also seen Campbell represent his country in the Australian junior amateur championships, where he placed sixth, the Mastercard junior Masters event (fifth) and the Toyota world junior championships, where he was a very creditable 33rd on the individual list.
Campbell has played on the provincial scene at senior level for both Wairarapa and Wellington and is the youngest member of the exclusive Titelist Golf Academy.
Also in the reckoning for the Sports Personality of the Year award last night were other category winners in Vicki Paine (Sportswoman of the Year), April Campbell (Junior Sportsperson of the Year), Emma and Sarah Berry (Emerging Sport of the Year), Sarah Moore (Contribution to Sport) and the Rathkeale College golf team which was adjudged Sports Team of the Year.
Paine, from Wairarapa College, is a rising star in the athletics world, having represented New Zealand at the Oceania track and field championships in Saipan where she was a silver medallist over both 200m and 400m, missing first placing in the 400m by just two hundreds of a second.
She will also wear the Kiwi colours at the Pacific School Games in Australia later this year where she will contest the 400m as well as two relay events.
April Campbell, from Wairarapa College, was part of the New Zealand track and field team which competed at the Down Under meet on Australia's Gold Coast. After finishing fifth against older opposition in the 15yrs 90m hurdles she was a member of the winning line-up in the 4 by 100m relay and the second placed team in the 4 by 400m relay.
Like Paine, Campbell has also been selected in the New Zealand team for the Pacific School Games where she will again compete over hurdles.
The Berry sisters, Sarah and Emma from St Matthew's Collegiate, sailed for New Zealand at the world 420 class championships in Athens in July and won two of their nine races there, being placed 16th overall.
Earlier in the year they had finished 18th in the silver fleet section at the world 470 championships in Melbourne, an event which doubled as a trial for the Beijing Olympics and in which the Berrys were the youngest crew in the field.
Moore, the St Matthew's Collegiate senior swimming champion, is a qualified lifeguard at the Riversdale Beach Surf Life Saving Club and was a member of that club's team which was placed third overall at the national patrol team's championships held in April.
She is heavily involved in educating youngsters on the importance of beach safety, running, among other things, the "nipper's" programme which teaches life saving skills to children who are keen on surf life saving but too young to become life guards.
The Rathkeale College boys golf team made big waves on both the provincial and national scene.
They won the Wellington secondary schools golf title and went on to place second in the New Zealand secondary schools team's championship.
Guest speaker at last night's function was Tom Ashley, board sailing gold medallist for New Zealand at the Beijing Olympics.