Rowland Smith in action at the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Invercargill yesterday. Photo/Supplied
Rowland Smith in action at the World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Invercargill yesterday. Photo/Supplied
Hawke's Bay shearer Rowland Smith scored a stunning Southland All Nations Open championship win in Invercargill last night on the last night of a near three-year reign as World Champion.
The win was some compensation for the two-metre-tall Smith, who last year won five of the six preliminary rounds of the 2017 New Zealand team selection series, only to finish third in the series final and miss selection in the two-man machine shearing team and the chance to defend his World title won in Ireland in 2014.
The win came on the third night of the four-day 40th anniversary World championships which end in front of a sell-out crowd, expected to number more than 4000 in ILT Stadium Southland tonight.
Smith won by almost two points from New Zealand team member and Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick who made a gallant bid to claim the All Nations title by producing fastest time of 17min 6sec, beating Smith by about 11 seconds.
World championship favourite and 2012 World title winner Joel Henare, now living in Dunedin but from Gisborne, won the All Nations woolhandling final by about 5.4pts over runner-up Alexandra's Pagan Karauria, who had earlier in the night finished sixth in the Senior shearing final.
World blade shearing champion Mayenseke Shweni stamped a big mark on the event when he won the Southland All Nations blade shearing title.
Shweni won the World title in Gorey, Ireland, in 2014, and remains a favourite to win back-to-back titles at the 40th anniversary championships.
Joel Henare on his way to winning the All Nations Open Woolhandling. Photo/Supplied
Shweni won by more than 12 points from runner-up and New Zealand shearer Tony Dobbs, a Fairlie farmer, but second South African shearer Bangani Joel slipped to fourth place after shearing the six sheep in 16min 9sec, almost two minutes quicker than his teammate who was second to finish.
Waipawa shearer Aaron Bell became the second winner from Hawke's Bay within a few hours, claiming the All Nations Senior machine shearing title after Napier's Angela Stevens won the All Nations Senior woolhandling final. Ironically, Stevens' husband was among Bell's opposition his six-man final over 10 sheep each.
The All Nations Intermediate machine shearing title was won by promising Amberley shearer Mitchell Murray, his points for being first to the finish of the six-sheep shear being enough to hold-out on the quality shear of Winton's Brandon Maguire-Ratima, whom he beat by just over six-tenths of a point.
The championships conclude with the final day from 8am (New Zealand time) where World Championships will be awarded in individual and team events across blade and machine shearing and woolhandling.
Results of the Southland All Nations shearing and woolhandling championships on the third day of the 40th anniversary World championships being held at ILT Stadium Southland, Invercargill, NZ, on February 8-11, 2017:
Shearing:Open Machines final (20 second-shear sheep): Rowland Smith (Hastings, NZ) 17min 17.569sec, 59.629pts, 1; John Kirkpatrick (Napier, NZ) 17min 6.137sec, 61.507pts, 2; Nathan Stratford (Invercargill, NZ) 18min 11.18sec, 62.809pts, 3; Darin Forde (Lorneville, NZ) 17min 47.001sec, 4; James Fagan (Raglan, NZ) 17min 30.785sec, 64.189pts, 5; Ivan Scott (Co Donegal, Ireland) 17min 15.542sec, 64.627pts, 6.
