National age groups
Squash
TALK rolls with Hawke's Bay squash player Rhiarne Taiapa and she hopes her current one continues until the end of today at least.
Within a week of the 16-year-old helping her Hastings club team win the national B grade team title at the Hawke's Bay club in Napier, Taiapa won the national under-17 title and was named the country's most improved junior female for the year at the national age group championships in Hamilton at the weekend.
The team segment of the championships end today and should Eastern No 1 Taiapa, who earned A grade status in July, beat her Northland opponent McKenzie Johnson in the playoff for third there's a good chance she will be named in the New Zealand under-19 team for next year's world championships in Tauranga.
When the Hastings Girls High School Year 11 student, who was seeded second, beat Bay of Plenty top seed Nadia Hubbard 3-2 in her final on Sunday Taiapa captured her first national individual title. She won the deciding set 15-13.
"There wasn't much of a crowd at the start of the final because everyone thought Nadia would win. But when the word got around about me being 2-0 up the gallery was packed. Nadia came out really wanting it in the third and fourth sets, we both wanted the title in the fifth set but I wanted it more," Taiapa recalled.