Emma?s our new sports star

Emma Wilton is getting a tattoo ? a Maple leaf and then maybe a silver fern. Mum may not like it, Wilton says, but some honours run more than just skin deep.
"Some days I do wonder who I am and what country I'm from - so yeah, a Maple leaf tattoo would probably be joined pretty quickly by a silver fern."
The 28-year-old former Wairarapa woman was this year named in the national netball squad for Canada and is hoping to qualify with the team at regional competitions in Barbados in August for the world championships in Fiji next year, Wilton said from Calgary yesterday.
Her parents, Brian and Helen Wilton of Halcombe, had been living in Canada during a five-year stint working abroad and Wilton was born in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Mr Wilton said yesterday he and his wife are "super-proud" of their daughter and her latest sporting achievement and the couple have set their sights on Fiji next year and the possibility of Canada making the world championship event.
"But I don't know if I'm going to be roaring for black or red ? probably a bit of both," said Mr Wilton, a former Wairarapa-Bush and Canterbury representative rugby player.
The Canadian squad came out on top last month during her debut for the team against Singapore, she said, although "to be brutally honest" a game against the Silver Ferns may be more a mismatch than a measuring up.
Wilton has played netball since taking the court for Wainuioru School aged nine, and while in the region "reached her peak" playing for the Wairarapa College Senior B team.
"I'm very proud but very realistic. I know where I sit in terms of my capabilities in New Zealand ? but yeah, that takes nothing at all away from the pride of playing in the national squad."
Wilton said her naming in the national squad ? now ranked 21 of the top 25 in the world ? "came as an honour and surprise" after returning to Canada two years ago as part of plans to work and travel internationally.
"It really is absolutely amazing. I never dreamed I'd find netball here. I didn't even realise there was a national side."
Wilton, a qualified accountant, said she is now living in Calgary and working as a tenant co-ordinator for a property developer and is the only member of the national squad to make it from the Western Canada province of Alberta.
She had been training with the Alberta Comets since September last year and was selected for the national squad after playing at the Canadian National Netball Tournament held in Vancouver in May.
Wilton was rapt that the squad won against Singapore last month, she said, as they had not trained together before facing the international challenge.
She said the team are consequently to meet in Barbados five days before the competition begins, to train and strategise ? with half of Wilton's travel and accommodation costs being paid through fundraising by her manager coach "and the heart and soul of Alberta netball" ex-pat Australian, Paula MacWilliam.
Wilton had herself played and coached while living in Christchurch before leaving on her international travels, she said, and joins at least two other past players from the southern city league ? Lisa Washington of the US squad and Charlene Porima now playing for Singapore ? who have gone on to greater netball glory despite sidestepping the Silver Ferns.
"I used to sit in the bleachers and watch Vilimaina Davu and Belinda Colling walk past and they're very touchable - even though they're the best in the world."
Her plans to return to New Zealand are indefinite, she said, although a trip to Vancouver Island this year brought her "in touch with home".
"I paddled in the Pacific Ocean and ate fish and chips. It's the closest I've got since I left I suppose and it was good I have to say."
A journey has also been shelved to walk the Inca trails in Peru, she said, and while her focus is now on netball and the upcoming games, she still intends making a trip back to her town of birth in Saskatchewan.
Wilton celebrated her 28th birthday in Calgary last week and a favourite gift was a netball sent by her mother and signed by friends across New Zealand wishing her "all the best in Fiji, 2007".
"If we make it to Fiji next year it would be overwhelming to come up against New Zealand, but I can only hope. There's a lot of work - and winning - to be done before there's even a chance of that happening, " she said.