Two national age group hockey reps will take on a kick boxer and a rugby player in the battle for the Senior Sports Personality trophy at the 2004 Wairarapa Sports awards, the winners of which will be announced on December 1.
Daniel Juno and Elizabeth Perry are current members of the New Zealand under-21 boys and girls hockey squads who are preparing to play their Australian counterparts early next month.
Both youngsters also played in the national premier league for Wellington teams last season and for Dalefield at club level.
Perry has also made a huge impact in the sport of cricket, having played for the Central Districts and Wairarapa senior teams last season.
Kick boxer Gordon Pye has been competing for New Zealand at the world amateur championships in Thailand and is a holder of the national middleweight title as well as the WMC (World Tutai Council) middeweight title.
Rugby player Stu Smith was the outstanding individual as Wairarapa-Bush created history by making it through to the grand final of the NPC third division competition in 2004.His impressive form earned him a trial for the New Zealand divisional team.
JUNIOR AWARD
Finalists in the Junior Sports personality section are Liam Burling, Kirk Collins, Bjarne Frederiksen and Lisa Hansen.
Burling at just 6yrs is probably the youngest-ever finalist in the history of the awards.He grabbed the headlines by scoring a massive 119 tries for his Masterton Red Star JAB rugby team in the 2004 season.
Collins qualified to play in the under-12s event at the national junior tennis championships in Christchurch and is the top ranked under-12 player in the Wairarapa. He also won his age group at the Wairarapa badminton championships.
Frederiksen, a nephew of Aaron Slight, has made an impressive start to his motocross career. He already has filled the runner-up spot at both New Zealand and North Island championships, won the local Langlands series twice as well as the 2004 Spectro series. Hockey is another of his interests and he represented Wairarapa at Hatch Cup level there.
Hansen competed in nine events at he New Zealand junior swimming championships and gained top 10 rankings in all of them, including one second and two thirds.
She also had two seconds and one third in the Swim New Zealand long distance programme and is the current holder of 28 Wairarapa age group records. She is also the youngest-ever recipient of the Fairbrother Cup which goes to the Carterton club's Swimmer of the Year.
SPORTS ADMINISTRATOR
Finalists in the Sports Administrator of the Year award are Ron Hughes, Graeme Morris, Loraine Somerville and Andy Wilson.
Hughes has made a huge contribution in several roles to the Featherton Athletic Club over many years and was recently awarded life membership of that club He has also been a grand servant of rugby in the Wairarapa-Bush area, especially in the JAB area.
Morris is the chief executive officer for Petanque New Zealand and was manager and part of the selection panel for the New Zealand team which played Aiustralia in their trans-Tasman clash at Clareville last Queen's Birthday weekend.
Somerville was crowned Administrator of the Year at Netball Wellington's prize giving function in Petone last month. She is on the Netball Wairarapa committee and was responsible for etsablishing a development plan for netball in this area.
Wilson was coach of the Dalefield women's hockey team which won the Wellington premier women's division inter-club title for the 2004 season and he also took the Wairarapa senior women's team to third placing at the national division one tournament.
SPORTS TEAM
The finalists for the Sports Team of the Year award are the Dalefield women's hockey team, the St Matthew's Collegiate netball team, the Wairarapa-Bush rugby team and the Wairarapa under-15 girls netball team.
Dalefield won the 2004 Wellington women's premier division inter-club hockey competition, St Matthew's Collegiate placed fourth at the Lower North Island secondary schools netball tournament and qualified for the national finals, and also took out the Wairarapa premier one interclub competition. Wairarapa-Bush made an NPC rugby final for the very first time in their third division competition and the Wairarapa under-15 girls netball side had a 17 win, one draw and one loss record in 2004, including a second placing at the North Island regional tourney.
They won the Betty Blair Cup for the best performance by an under-15 team from the Wellington region for last season.
l The Wairarapa-Times are major sponsors of the Wairarapa sports awards and the public have a big say in the voting process. They can record their votes through forms published in the Times-Age over the next fortnight.
Top line-up battle for sports awards
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