Sports academy: Talented intake graduates

Some of Otago's most promising athletes graduated from their respective high performance programmes on Tuesday night.

Five Pathway to Podium (P2P) and five Otago Academy of Sport (OAS) athletes featured at the graduation ceremony, which was held in conjunction with the OAS general meeting at the Sargood Centre on Tuesday night.

Netballers and sisters Abby and Sophie Erwood were among the OAS graduates. Both have enjoyed success since joining the programme two years ago.

Abby recently signed with the Southern Steel for next year's ANZ Championship campaign as the team's fourth defender, and both sisters played in the Dunedin under 19 team at the national championships in July.

Promising cross country mountain biker Shannon Hope, a Bayfield High School pupil, also graduated from the OAS programme, as did Robert Jopp (athletics) and John Thorn (hockey).

Oamaru's Isobel Ryan, who started a four year swimming scholarship at the University of Wyoming in July, was one of five to graduate from the P2P programme, which aims to help more Kiwis succeed on the world stage.

Andrew Potter (rowing), Maddi McLean (hockey), Caitlin Dore and Jono Brownjohn (para athletics) also graduated from the programme.

Thirty five Otago athletes from 11 sports started their first year in the P2P programme in June.