Two new legends inducted at Sporting Excellence Awards

HONOURED: Terry Sheldrake photographed last year about the time he received the Sir Eion and Jan, Lady Edgar Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to triathlon and sport.

Two more Tairawhiti Legends of Sport were inducted at the Sporting Excellence Awards this month — Raipoia Brightwell (waka ama) and Terry Sheldrake (triathlon).

Brightwell, daughter of Tahitian traditional voyager Francis Cowan, was part of the land support team for the Hawaikinui voyage undertaken by her husband Matahi and her father. Their journey using a traditional craft and handed-down knowledge showed how Maori could have navigated their way to Aotearoa.

The inclusion of Raipoia Brightwell in the Tairawhiti Legends of Sport recognises her contribution to the development of waka ama as a sport in New Zealand, her prowess as an international-class paddler and steerer, and her coaching with the country’s first waka ama club, Mareikura.

She follows her husband Matahi Brightwell into the ranks of the Tairawhiti Legends of Sport, just as she did when she followed him into the Waka Ama New Zealand Hall of Fame a few years after Matahi and two other pioneers of the sport were the first to be inducted.

Terry Sheldrake was one of four founding members of the Eastland Triathlon Club in 1983 and helped form the New Zealand Triathlon Association in 1984.

He drove the establishment in Gisborne of the Eastland Sports Foundation Education Trust, now known as Sport Gisborne Tairawhiti.

As founding chief executive of the regional sports trust, he led the organisation from 1990 to 2002.

Sheldrake and his wife Kathy were integral to the delivery of the Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon.

Terry Sheldrake was president of Triathlon New Zealand from 1996 to 2000, and on the International Triathlon Union (ITU) executive board from 2008 to 2020. He was made a life member of Triathlon New Zealand in 2009 and in 2015 received the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to triathlon.

At last year’s New Zealand Sport and Recreation Awards, Sheldrake received a lifetime achievement award.

In a video feed, Sheldrake said sport was all about the athletes. If they were having a good time, the work done by administrators amounted to an amazing way to spend a life. He thanked his wife and family for their support.