World Shearing Championships short listed for Event Awards

New Zealand Shearing Foundation Chairman Tom Wilson was delighted with today's double announcement. Photo / File

The 2017 World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships and ILT Stadium Southland received further accolades today, both being named as finalists for national event awards by the New Zealand Events Association.

The World Championships staged at ILT Stadium Southland in Invercargill in February this year, attracted competitors from a record 31 countries (along with 4500 sheep) for the four-day championship, earning international and unanimous praise for its unprecedented showcasing of the sports of shearing and woolhandling.

The event is a finalist in the Best International Event category while ILT Stadium Southland was short-listed for the Best Industry Supplier for an Event award.

New Zealand Shearing Foundation Chairman Tom Wilson was delighted with today's double announcement.

"It's very humbling just to make the final. When you look at the events which have won this award previously and the standard of this year's finalists, it's a great endorsement in all the hard work by the hundreds who made the World Championships the event it was," he said.

"We put our name forward to recognise all the support we received from the ILT Stadium team, the shearing fraternity, the public, sponsors and funders. And just like competing at World Champs, once you make a final, anything can happen," the former World Shearing Champion Wilson said.

ILT Stadium Southland General Manager Nigel Skelt said it was a great result for the event, the venue and the Southland community.

"It's fantastic recognition for what was a very special event. I think it also says a great deal about our community and this wonderful community facility that we can deliver a world class event to that standard," Skelt said.

The World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships is joined as a finalist in the International Event category by the 2016 Aon Youth Sailing World Championships, Crankworx Rotorua 2016, the Royal New Zealand Navy's 75th Anniversary International Navy Review and SingularityU New Zealand Summit.

The category winners will be announced at a gala dinner at SkyCity in Auckland on 11 October.