Award winners do the Far North proud in Whangarei

The Far North was well represented at the ASB Secondary School Sports Awards in Whangarei on Thursday evening.

Kerikeri High School's Riley Phillips-Harris won one of the top prizes when he accepted the boys' excellence award at Kensington Stadium after becoming a taekwondo national champion.

At the Oceania Championships he won gold medals in individual and team sparring, a gold medal in individual speciality and a bronze medal in individual patterns.

He represented New Zealand at the World Cup in the United Kingdom, where he won a silver medal in individual sparring and bronze medals in both team sparring and team patterns.

Pupils from Te Kura Kaupapa o Te Rangi Aniwaniwa picked up both the NorthTec Area School awards with waka ama paddler Merita Heihei winning the female prize with the men's prize going to rugby league player Tumoana Halkyard.

Heihei was in the W12 Junior Girls team that won gold in the 500m event at the Waka Ama World Sprint Championships and her W6 team also finished fourth over 1500m. Perhaps the biggest deal about her success is that she only began paddling last year.

Halkyard is another natural athlete and was one of the go-to players in a talented Northern Swords 17s squad; he was also selected to trial for the NZ 16s Rugby League team as well as for the NZ Under 16 Basketball Team.

Champion swimmer Melita Raravula, was a big winner in the ASB Secondary School Sports Awards.

The Pompallier College student was named sportswoman of the year at the awards ceremony with Whangarei Boys High School's Mason Reed named sportsman of the year.

Raravula competed at the NZ Open Championships which doubled as an Olympic trial, making the A final in one event, and last week she was selected to represent New Zealand at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival to be held at Sydney in January.

Reed finished the year ranked as the top junior trap shooter in the country.

He was selected to represent New Zealand in the NZ Oceania Trap Team, but instead took his place in the Whangarei Boys' High School shooting team that competed successfully in the NZ Secondary School Championships.