Rising Queenstown mountain bike star Indy Deavoll was last week named ‘junior sportswoman of the year’ at the 2026 Forsyth Barr Central Otago Sports Awards, while the SkyCity Stampede ice hockey team was named ‘team of the year’ for the second year running.
Hosted by Sport Central, its active recreation adviser, Jo Knight, says every speaker at the Lake Wānaka Centre reflected on the role the Central Otago sporting community has played in ‘‘creating opportunities, building resilience, and inspiring athletes to dream big’’.
Wānaka’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott won the ‘sportswoman of the year’ and The Bruce Grant Memorial Trophy for the overall supreme award — Queenstown ski racer Alice Robinson and sevens player Olive Watherston were finalists in the former category — while freeskier Luca Harrington (Wānaka) won ‘sportsman of the year’.
Lake Hawea’s Luke Harrold (freeski, halfpipe) won ‘junior sportsman of the year’ — finalists in that category included Queenstowners Hugo Bogue (cricket) and Cooper Breen (freeski, halfpipe).
In the official of the year category, won by Wānaka freeski judge Victoria Beattie, locals Adam Nagy (ice hockey) and Sasha McLeod (netball) were also finalists, while Robinson’s coaches Nils Coberger and Tim Cafe and Stampede coach Cam Frear were finalists in the ‘coach of the year’, won by Snow Sports New Zealand Park & Pipe head coach Tom Willmott.
Athlete Phoebe Laker, of Wānaka, won the ‘sporting moment of the year’ after she became NZ’s youngest female to run 400m in under 54 seconds, while Murray MacMillan (rodeo) and Charlise Wyatt (athletics and touch) won the senior and junior ‘spirit of Central Otago award’, respectively.
Additionally, Paralympian Adam Hall and Central Otago sporting champion Bill Godsall were inducted into the hall of fame, and the John Fitzharris Memorial Trophy for Services to Sport was presented to Kellie Bailey in recognition of her outstanding contribution to canoe slalom.
