KEY POINTS:
A little-known sportsman with two current world championship titles won the Auckland Sporting Excellence Award at Eden Park last night.
Scott Arlidge, a roller sports competitor, won the title ahead of strong competition from category winners including triathlete Jo Lawn, tennis player Sacha Jones, rower Daniel Quigley and the Auckland City soccer team.
Arlidge, 23, also won the men's award ahead of world champion rower Mahe Drysdale and triathlete Cameron Brown.
Arlidge won two golds and a silver at the world champs in Korea this year and gained high placings in other major events around the world as well as dominating the national championships.
Just 12 months ago a badly broken ankle in a race in Europe should have hampered his career significantly. Instead, he worked his way back into competitive racing and became one of the stars of the highly competitive European racing circuit.
Ironwoman Lawn, who won the New Zealand long-distance triathlon champs, the New Zealand Ironman champs and was fourth at the world champs in Hawaii, claimed the women's award.
The other finalists were Auckland rugby's Victoria Heighway and aerobics champion Angela McMillan.
Top-20 ranked junior player Jones, who turned 16 this week, won the junior sportswoman award after reaching the quarter-finals of singles and doubles at the US Open juniors and earning a ranking of 12 in juniors. She also gained a WTA senior ranking.
Jones won ahead of aerobics world medallist Charlotte Bass and Soccer 2 representative Abby Erceg who, as a schoolgirl, played in the Fifa under-20 World Cup.
Rower Daniel Quigley was the junior sportsman winner and soccer coach Allan Jones the coach of the year.
Team of the Year went to Auckland City Soccer after winning the national championship and then qualifying for the rich world club champs.
Other winners included Gymsports NZ's Stephen Kendall as the referee/umpire of the year and Dafydd Sanders from Auckland Taekwondo as the Maori Achievement award winner.
* Alfred Welsh from Northland won the 2006 Watties Volunteer Coach of the Year title last night. Welsh has coached numerous sports including athletics, cross country, rugby, league, surfing, swimming, and touch rugby, for over 22 years.
He stood out to the judges not only for his dedication and commitment to coaching many sports, but for the values and sportsmanship he instills in his players. He was selected from more than 2700 nominations from all over New Zealand. Melvin Tudor of Otago and Binh Nguyen of Waikato were runners-up.
Lifetime achievement awards were presented to Monica Burns of Southland and Terry O'Neill of Hawkes Bay.
