Black Stick Samantha Harrison has been named the 2009 Young Sportswoman of the Year for her outstanding hockey achievements.
Harrison was presented with the award at the annual College Sport Young Sportsperson of the Year Dinner at Eden Park on Thursday.
The win took the 18-year-old by surprise.
"I had absolutely no
idea that I would win and I was still in shock when they started asking me questions at the awards ceremony," she said.
Now that her win had started to sink in, the Year 13 student said it would encourage her to keep training hard at hockey to reach the level of previous Young Sportswoman of the Year award winners, including former Diocesan student and world cycling champion Sarah Ulmer in 1993, and hockey player Frances Kreft, who won in 2003.
Harrison said her older sister Charlotte, who is also a Black Stick, has been her biggest role model.
"I have always looked up to her and when she made it into the Black Sticks at only 16 it really motivated me to try hard because I wanted to be in there with her."
Harrison made her Black Sticks debut at Whangarei against Argentina and also played against China in July but was dropped from the 18 who won the Oceania Cup in September.
However, she was selected for the squad who travelled to South Africa to contest the Champions Challenge, and put in a stellar performance for the Kiwis, who won the tournament after a fiercely fought final against the hosts.
The victory allowed the Black Sticks to be promoted into next year's Champions' Trophy tournament.
Along with her Sportswoman of the Year title, Harrison also picked up the individual hockey gong on the
prestigious awards night.
The Young Sportsman of the Year title went to Tall Black and Westlake Boys
High School student Rob Lowe.
Meanwhile Mahurangi College's Kimberley Burke won the individual distance running award.
