Connected to Gisborne

Recognising achievement: Former Silver Ferns coach Leigh Gibbs was one of three that received the Sir Eion and Jan, Lady Edgar Lifetime Achievement Award. File picture

GISBORNE connections feature in the New Zealand Sport and Recreation Award winners announced last night as part of the Sport New Zealand annual conference in Christchurch.

A partnership between Softball New Zealand and the Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union to deliver softball to rural townships in Tairāwhiti has been given a community impact award.

Softball NZ adopted a locally led approach to community development by partnering with the local rugby union.

This collaboration was designed to deliver the sport beyond Gisborne and drive connectivity within the regional townships.

The initiative was directed mainly at country schools right up the East Coast, inland as far as Matawai and south to Muriwai.

Also announced last night was the inclusion of Leigh Gibbs among the three recipients of the Sir Eion and Jan, Lady Edgar Lifetime Achievement Award.

Gibbs was born in Gisborne in July 1956 and educated at Mangapapa Primary School, Ilminster Intermediate and Lytton High School.

She went to Otago University to study Physical Education, and then spent a year at the Christchurch College Of Education.

In netball she represented Otago from 1974 to 1976 and Canterbury from 1977 to 1986. She also played in New Zealand's national team later called the Silver Ferns, from 1978 to 1987.

She captained the team in 1986 and 1987.

In 1979 the team came first equal in the World Championship. The team she captained in 1987 won the championship, held in Scotland. No other team there got within 10 goals of the Silver Ferns.

Gibbs was contracted to coach Canterbury for three different seasons since 1988, the New Zealand Under-21 team in 1991 and 1992 (they won the World Championship in 1992), and the Silver Ferns from 1993 to 1997.

She remains an influential figure in New Zealand netball.

The other recipients of the award this year are Dr Mike Boyes MNZM and Fred Strachan QSM.