Sport and study combined

Cory Taylor. Gisborne Herald file picture by Paul Rickard

Canoe sprint champion Lisa Carrington has been named the inaugural winner of the Massey University Blues Sports Awards Supreme Award for 2021 and has received the Distance Sportswoman of the Year award.

Four Gisborne sports achievers — Alicia Hoskin, Britney Ford, Chris Dawson and Cory Taylor — have also been recognised by Massey University in the annual Blues Awards, which celebrate sporting excellence.

Carrington’s family on her father Patrick’s side are from Gisborne. Grandfather Maurice Carrington and his brothers Eddie and Bill played rugby for Poverty Bay, with Bill and Eddie becoming Maori All Blacks. Her great-grandfather Karaitiana Carrington founded the GMC club. She is of Rongowhakaata, Ngati Porou, Te Aitanga a Mahaki and Rongomaiwahine descent.

Carrington has studied towards a Bachelor of Arts in Maori studies and politics.

In a video message thanking the university for her awards, Carrington said Massey made it possible for people like her to continue studying through distance learning.

“I’ve been at Massey since 2008 and continued to slowly get through my degree and then into my postgraduate study, so thank you so much for the acknowledgement,” she said.

Carrington and other sporting students received their Blues Awards in a virtual event last night.

After the cancellation of last year’s Blues Awards due to Covid-19, Massey University celebrated the 2020 and 2021 finalists and winners online.

Across the two years, 222 student athletes received Blues Awards, with 312 trophies and pins awarded . . . 113 trophies went to first-time recipients and 199 pins went to athletes getting an award for a second or subsequent year. Six athletes — Britney Ford was one of them — received awards for their performance in two different sports.

Ford received 2020 Blues Awards for canoe sprint and surf lifesaving.

She has submitted her thesis for a masters degree in environmental management and is working in Gisborne in her chosen field.

She studied for four years at the University of Auckland (where she was also a Blues Award recipient for canoe sprint) and for two years through Massey.

“She was fulltime university and fulltime sport, at the same time,” said her father Kevin.

Cory Taylor, in surf lifesaving, and Alicia Hoskin, in canoe sprint, received Blues Awards in both 2020 and 2021.

Taylor has studied at Massey for a Bachelor of Business degree, focusing on finance, economics, entrepreneurship and innovation. Lately he has been studying for a masters degree in finance through Bond University, Queensland. (Information taken from LinkedIn profile)

Hoskin, who competed at the Tokyo Olympics, is studying for a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise, majoring in sport development.

She started her study at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) but because of training demands she shifted her study to Massey, and has about two more years of study to go.

Chris Dawson received a 2021 Blues Award for surf lifesaving. He is in Auckland, concentrating on swimming and surf lifesaving, and studying part-time.

Dawson is distance-studying with Massey towards a Bachelor of Construction degree and hopes to complete it next year.