Wellington Rugby League crew at the Sportsperson of the Year Awards

I’ve been eating for victory this week with another outstanding dinner on Thursday at the Wellington Sportsperson of the Year awards.  These awards functions are vital in Wellington’s sense of itself as a distinct and vibrant cultural city.  The DomPost sponsorship of this and other events like the Wellington Gold Awards is a key element.

At the Sports dinner I enjoyed getting to know Hon. Winnie Laban’s husband.  Winnie (pictured above) had two tickets in the competition.  She is the patron of Wellington Rugby League, of which I’m chairman.  We were proud to have Wainuiomata Rugby League Club as a finalist in the Team of the Year category.  But it was with her other hat, as patron of the Titahi Bay Surf Life Saving Club that she had a winner, the men’s legendary boat crew.

With four sports-mad children, I appreciate what is behind each finalist at the Sports Awards – the sacrifices, triumphs, tears, injuries and friendships, as well as the coaches, families and other support.  We celebrated them all, but I must admit to pleasure at seeing one of our our surf life saving and swimmer daughter’s best friends, Tash Hind, being named Sportswoman of the Year and their coach, Gary Hurring of Capital Swim Club, honoured as a finalist.  Tash was Competitor of the Meet at the German Cup Surf Life Saving competition this year and would be going to the Surf Life Saving World Cup in Germany, except that she’s also made the New Zealand Olympic Swimming Team in the 4 x 200m relay.

Gary has coached them both at swimming since they were youngsters, Tash’s father, Steve Hind, got them up surfing at Lyall Bay and Mahia, and the wonderful Marilyn Moffatt of Lyall Bay Surf Life Saving Club saw their potential and pushed them into surf competiton.  They’ve both represented New Zealand at surf life saving in the pool in winning teams.  The only thing they haven’t done yet is persuade Steve Hind to lend them his VW Kombi van for a summer road trip.