Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Koutu continue their impressive basketball record by adding an intermediate school national title to their trophy cabinet.
The Year 7 and 8 pupils were named the basketball girls champions of the New Zealand Community Trust Aims Games - one of the biggest sporting events in the country for intermediate school-aged children. They were runners-up in last year's competition and were the titleholders in 2010.
Captain Te Aokahurangi Leach said the team had been training hard leading up to the week-long event in Tauranga recently.
"We were having to wake up early for training and we'd be running all the time and during our lunch breaks," she said.
The team had lost to Tauranga Intermediate during the early rounds of the competition but coach Moana Douglas said that it helped the team refocus.