KEY POINTS:
In winning the vault at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, 14-year-old gymnast Nikki Jenkins became New Zealand's youngest gold medallist at an Olympic or Commonwealth Games.
Her effort was later recognised as a winner of a New Zealand Herald Junior Sports Award. She remains the youngest of the 205 award winners. But only just.
Among the six to be recognised in the renamed Herald Future Stars this year are Sophie Pascoe and Rosie White who were 15 when they grabbed the headlines.
In an outstanding list, paralympian swimmer Pascoe and soccer star White are joined by golfer Danny Lee, 18, swimmer Hayley Palmer, 19, badminton player Jessica Jonggowisastro, 17, and, in a first for the awards, snowboarder James Hamilton, 19.
The judges, Herald Sports Editor Chris Allen, former international swimmer Alison Fitch, former hockey international David Appleby, Mike Stanley and Julie Meyer from award partners the Millennium Institute of Sport and Health, and convener Terry Maddaford, were impressed by the outstanding list of candidates.
Lee, highly commended two years earlier, and on the verge of turning professional, won the 2008 US Amateur Championships - eclipsing Tiger Woods as the youngest-ever winner. Lee, who also scored a top 20 finish in the [fully-professional] Wyndham Classic, ended the year as the world's top ranked amateur.
Pascoe first made her mark as a 14-year-old, winning four golds at the 2007 IWAS World Games in Taipei. Those successes were followed in March last year with seven-from-seven victories at the NZ Disabled Swimming Nationals. Within weeks she added another five golds at the British Swimming Nationals.
But those triumphs were over-shadowed in September in Beijing when she won three golds (and set a world record) and a silver in the pool at the Paralympics.
White scored hat-tricks at the Fifa Under-17 and Under-20 Women's World Cups, capping an amazing comeback after being sidelined for six months with a knee injury. In six games at Under-20 level she scored six goals.
As the youngest member of both teams, White is eligible to play the 2010 Under-17 World Cup and the Under-20 World Cups in 2010 and 2012.
Jonggowisastro had a stellar 2008. The former Westlake GHS pupil scored her biggest win when playing for New Zealand in the Uber Cup world team's championship in Malaysia where she upset a Danish player ranked 71st in the world.
Jonggowisastro, ranked 105 in the world, also represented New Zealand at the Junior World Championships and the Commonwealth Youth Games, reaching the quarter-finals in singles and doubles at the Youth Games.
Palmer had a busy 2008 representing New Zealand at the World Championships (short course), the Oceania Championships, the Australian Grand Prix, the Fina/Arena World Cup Series and the Beijing Olympics. By the end of the year Palmer, coached by former international Scott Talbot-Cameron, had broken seven New Zealand open records and was ranked 20th in the world over 50m freestyle (short course).
She was a member of the 4x200m freestyle relay team in Beijing but after swimming a time which would have bettered the national record by 07secs, the team was disqualified for a premature start.
Hamilton, younger brother of triathlete Anna, who was recognised in the former awards, is NZ's top-ranked snowboarder and has already qualified for next year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
He finished third at a World Cup event in Italy last March and has continued to perform creditably in both the northern and southern hemispheres since.
