Portia Woodman is a finalist for the High Performance Sport New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year award at the 55th Halberg Awards. Photo / Getty Images
Portia Woodman is a finalist for the High Performance Sport New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year award at the 55th Halberg Awards. Photo / Getty Images
Portia Woodman is up for yet another award after being named as a finalist at the 55th Halberg Awards.
The Kaikohe winger is in the running for the High Performance Sport New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year after a superlative year of rugby.
She was named World Rugby Women's Playerof the Year after a stellar World Cup campaign with the victorious Black Ferns, leading the try and point scoring tallies.
Woodman will be facing some stiff competition for the award though, coming up against 2016 Supreme Halberg award winner Lisa Carrington, Black Ferns teammate Sarah Goss and golfer Lydia Ko.
She has previously said the rise of women's rugby has shone a light on a potential career path for budding prospects.
"After Rio we saw a massive increase in women playing rugby and parents realising women can play rugby and it can be a pathway for them so I think now we've won this award, who knows where it will go?
"I think it's been said the women's game has taken over the men's in growth so it could go anywhere."
Meanwhile Team New Zealand, for regaining the America's Cup, and the Black Ferns for winning the women's rugby World Cup are the standout contenders for both the top team and the top overall award.
Northland has links in both the standout teams. Woodman, Charmaine Smith, Aleisha Nelson and Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali all played major roles in the Black Ferns' success in Ireland while Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney were on board the Team NZ boat that cruised to America's Cup glory.
Team New Zealand triumphed in their catamaran in the Bermuda regatta which produced the fastest racing in the event's storied history.
Portia Woodman is a finalist for the High Performance Sport New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year award at the 55th Halberg Awards. Photo / Getty Images
The Black Ferns won the New Zealand Rugby honour as team of the year and World Rugby's team of the year after winning their fifth World Cup title in August.
World champion shot putter Tom Walsh heads the sportsman category, in which motor racing driver Brendon Hartley, who graduated to Formula One this year, cricketer Ross Taylor and All Black Beauden Barrett are his fellow finalists.
The quartet in the disabled sportsperson category are para skier Corey Peters, athletes Holly Robinson and William Stedman and swimming champion Sophie Pascoe.
Carrington's longtime mentor Gordon Walker, who won the category last year, is among the four in line for the coach of the year honour, with rowing's Gary Hay, Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore and Mark Sorenson, who guided the Black Sox to victory at the worlds.
The Emerging Talent award features a group of young athletes who have had great achievements in 2017 including track cyclist Ellesse Andrews who won the individual pursuit and a world record at the UCI Junior Track World Championships. Sailor Josh Armit who won the under-17 Laser Radial World Title, freeskiier Nico Porteous who won the Australia New Zealand Cup Free Ski Halfpipe and rower Matthew MacDonald who claimed a silver medal in the men's coxless four at the World Junior Rowing Championships are also finalists.
The winners will be presented at the 55th Halberg Awards ceremony on February 8 at Spark Arena in Auckland.
Halberg Foundation chief executive Shelley McMeeken said the shortlist was an outstanding group of athletes, coaches, and teams who had made New Zealanders proud.
