Wealth of talent among nominees

Otago sport’s night of nights will again celebrate the best of the best in the province.

The annual Otago Sports Awards are at the Edgar Centre tonight.

As usual, the cream of the crop will be present to see whose efforts in the past year are considered the most meritorious, and some of the categories are exceptionally difficult to predict.

Both the feature individual categories are loaded.

Up for sportswoman of the year are netballer Kate Heffernan, motocross rider Courtney Duncan and alpine ski racer Alice Robinson.

Heffernan had another exceptional year for the Steel and Silver Ferns and was named best midcourter at the Netball World Cup, while Robinson struck some excellent form on tour with no fewer than five world cup podiums.

Add in the fact Duncan charged to her fourth world motocross title and you appreciate how this award could easily be split three ways.

It is a similar story in the sportsman category.

Nico Porteous rebounded from his injury layoff to win a silver medal in freeski superpipe at the elite invite-only Winter X Games, Glenn Phillips became an integral member of the Black Caps in all three formats, and Queenstown golfer Ben Campbell had a wonderful year highlighted by victory in the Hong Kong Open.

In the junior ranks, there is also plenty of elite talent to assess.

Perennial recipient Erika Fairweather is the presumptive favourite in the junior sportswoman category after winning gold in a New Zealand record time in the 400m freestyle at the world swimming championships, and adding silver and bronze medals.

But do not sleep on the efforts of rising freeskier Ruby Star Andrews, who had a world cup third and an X-Games fourth, or New Zealand junior 500m champion Catherine Lund, who was named emerging female talent at these awards last year.

Another freeskier, Luca Harrington, will jostle with Black Sticks hockey rookie Benji Culhane and professional cyclist James Gardner in the junior sportsman category.

Three champions are up for team of the year.

The Otago Sparks won cricket’s Hallyburton Johnstone Shield, the Otago men’s hockey team charged to back-to-back national titles, and the Otago 4x400m relay team of Fergus McLeay, Cameron Moffitt, Felix McDonald and John Gerber were national champions.

Dave Ross led that hockey team, Nils Coberger and Tim Cafe were behind Robinson’s success, and Lars Humer continues to mould swimming champions, making the coach of the year award fiercely contested.

Star athletes Holly Robinson and Anna Grimaldi will challenge the old master, skier Adam Hall, in the para sport category.

After all those honours, the supreme award will be presented.

Awards for emerging talent, official of the year, services to sport, and innovation in sport will also be presented tonight.

Robinson and Grimaldi will be on double duty at the Edgar Centre as they are also the guest speakers, while Melanie Kerr is the host.

Judges for the awards were Sport Otago chief executive James Nation, Academy of Sport manager and gymnastics guru Carmel Leslie, Otago Daily Times sports editor Hayden Meikle, University of Otago health sciences pro-vice-chancellor Megan Gibbons, and Otago rugby development manager Michael Smith.

 

Otago Sports Awards

Major finalists

Women: Kate Heffernan (netball), Courtney Duncan (motocross), Alice Robinson 
(skiing).

Men: Nico Porteous (freeskiing), Glenn Phillips (cricket), Ben Campbell (golf).

Team: Otago Sparks (cricket), Otago men (hockey), Otago 4x400m (athletics).

Coach: Dave Ross (hockey), Nils Coberger and Tim Cafe (skiing), Lars Humer (swimming).

Para: Adam Hall (skiing), Holly Robinson (athletics), Anna Grimaldi (athletics).

Junior women: Erika Fairweather (swimming), Catherine Lund (athletics), Ruby Star Andrews (freeskiing).

Junior men: Benji Culhane (hockey), Luca Harrington (freeskiing), James Gardner (cycling).