Otago University
students Sarah Chisnall and Debbie Hill will be recognised as
high performance athletes when they are awarded New Zealand
University Blues at Auckland tomorrow night.
There were 108 nominations and 50 of the prestige blues will
be awarded at the dinner at the North Harbour Stadium.
Chisnall (24), a long distance runner, and New Zealand
representative volleyballer Hill (22) will receive the awards
for outstanding performances in their sports.
Chisnall, who gave up swimming for athletics five years ago,
represented New Zealand for the first time at the world
mountain running championships in Switzerland last year. She
has a double degree in physical education and human nutrition
and won her first national athletics title at the mountain
running championships in 
Nelson last year. Chisnall, who first competed
in athletics as a 4-year-old in Dargaville, started serious
athletics while a pupil at Otago Girls High School.
She has an impressive record in distance running since
finishing fifth at the New Zealand road championships in 2006
and was a member of Otago's gold medal-winning women's team.
Chisnall won her first Otago marathon title in the Moro
marathon on the tough Otago Harbour course in 2hr 55min the
same year.
She reduced her time by 12min when finishing runner-up at the
New Zealand championships in New Plymouth last year in 2hr
43min 25sec and won the Christchurch marathon in 2007.
Chisnall was a member of Duncan Laing's elite swimming squad
from 1995 to 2002 and won a gold and bronze medal in the
backstroke at the division 2 national championships.
Hill impressed on the New Zealand volleyball tour and won the
award for being the most improved member of the women's team.
She was a talented netballer before switching to volleyball.
Hill played for the Magic in the National Bank Cup while
living in Rotorua and then switched to the Rebels when she
became a student at Otago University.
Hill's ability was recognised by the national selectors and
she was a member of the New Zealand under-21 squad in 2004
and 2005.
Double Olympic gold medallist Danyon Loader will be a keynote
speaker at the awards ceremony.
The finalists for the Supreme award of the New Zealand
University Sportsperson of the Year are: Sara Randall
(Massey) motorsport, Juliette Haigh (Massey) rowing and
Melissa Ingram (Auckland)) swimming.
The coaching award will be awarded to Murray Finch (table
tennis).
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