Māori Sports Awards Showcases World Champion Athletes

PĀNUI PĀPĀHO / PUBLICITY RELEASE

24 WHIRINGA-Ā-RANGI / NOVEMBER 2013

Māori Sports Awards Showcases World Champion Athletes

A total of 20 world champions – seven individuals and 13 team members – will be recognised for their international success at the 2013 National Māori Sports Awards in Auckland next weekend (Saturday November 30).

Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the 23rd awards ceremony to be hosted by Te Tohu Taakaro o Aotearoa Charitable Trust at the Vodafone Events Centre in Manukau from 5.00 pm.

Five of the world champion recipients are also finalists in two categories: sevens star Gillies Kaka, Black Sox captain Brad Rona and wood chopper Jason Wynyard are nominated for Māori Sports Man of the Year while canoeist Lisa Carrington and women’s sevens player Kayla McAlister join cricketer Suzie Bates as finalists for Māori Sports Women of the Year.

All finalists and recipients are in contention for the supreme award – the Albie Pryor Memorial Māori Sports Person of the Year – in honour of the founder of Te Tohu Taakaro o Aotearoa Charitable Trust. 

INDIVIDUAL MĀORI WORLD CHAMPIONS:

• Teneka Hyndman (Ngāti Tūwharetoa) – pro figure
• Jason Wynyard (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāpuhi, Tainui) – wood chopping
• Adam Tuwhitu Lowe (Tainui) – wood chopping
• Dave Mohi (Te Arawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) – BMX
• Sonia Manaena (Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tahu) – powerlifting
• Cameron Leslie (Ngāpuhi) – para-swimming
• Lisa Carrington (Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki) – canoeing

MĀORI IN WORLD CHAMPION TEAMS:

• New Zealand Mounted Games: David ‘Dee’ Cherrington (Ngāpuhi); Nancy Te Whata (Ngāpuhi)
• New Zealand Men’s Sevens: Gillies Kaka (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Manawa); Kurt Baker (Ngāpuhi)
• New Zealand Women’s Sevens: Sarah Goss (Ngāti Kahungunu); Honey Hireme (Ngāti Raukawa); Huriana Manuel (Ngāpuhi); Kayla McAlister (Te Āti Awa); Tyla Nathan-Wong (Ngāpuhi); Alexis Tapsell (Ngāti Pikiao); Selica Winiata (Ngāti Raukawa); Renee Wickcliffe (Hauraki); Portia Woodman (Ngāpuhi)
• New Zealand Softball: Brad Rona (Te Āti Awa); Jarrad Martin (Te Āti Awa); Nathan Nukunuku (Ngāti Porou); Thomas Makea (Ngāti Kahungunu); Tyson Byrne (Ngāti Porou)
• New Zealand Wood Chopping: Jason Wynyard (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāpuhi, Tainui); Adam Tuwhitu Lowe (Tainui)

National Maori radio programme producer Waatea 603 AM will devote six hours of live-to-air coverage from 5.00 pm on the station’s Auckland frequency, streamed live on the website, www.waateanews.com, and available to the national iwi radio network.

National indigenous broadcaster, Māori Television, will screen delayed coverage – presented by Te Arahi Maipi and Melodie Robinson – from 9.30 pm.

More information about the Māori Sports Awards is on the website www.maorisportsawards.co.nz

ENDS

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