Shearing
Golden Shears president Mavis Mullins has become just the second person to win the national Maori Sports Administrator of the Year award twice.
The only woman and only non-Wairarapa person to become president of the Golden Shears Society in Masterton (she lives in Dannevirke), her award, presented at a televised ceremony attended by more than 1000 people in Manukau on Saturday, recognised her role in organising the world shearing and woolhandling championships held here earlier this year.
A former Golden Shears woolhandling champion, and a principal in family shearing contracting partnership Paewai Mullins Shearing, Mullins had previously won the administrator award in 2003, when she was manager of the New Zealand team at that year's world championships in Queensland.
The latest accolade was presented at the 22nd national Maori Sports Awards, at which world champion woolhandling team Joel Henare, of Gisborne, and Australia-based Joanne Kumeroa, of Whanganui, were named Team of the Year.
Hawke's Bay shearers John Kirkpatrick, of Napier, and Cam Ferguson, of Waipawa, already Hawke's Bay and Ngati Kahungunu Team of the Year award winners, were also finalists on Saturday but were shaded by the woolhandlers who had also finished first and second in their individual event at the world championships in Masterton.
Kayak racer Lisa Carrington, of Ohope, acclaimed as the first Maori individual event Olympic Games gold medallist, won the supreme Maori Sportsperson of the Year title for a second year in a row, having also been named Maori Sportswoman of the Year. Sportsman of the Year was Olympic bronze medallist rower Storm Uru, of Invercargill.
Meanwhile, the 2012 Wairarapa Maori Sports Awards winners will be announced at a function this Thursday. Black Fern Shakira Baker won the overall Sportsperson of the Year trophy last year and has been nominated for Sportswoman of the Year again.
The full list of finalists is:
Male Tai Tamariki: Logen Allen (swimming, rugby), Dallas Swaneveld (swimming), Zachiary Hullah (swimming, athletics, rugby).
Female Tai Tamariki: Amy Te Maro (swimming), Emma Samuels (swimming), Georgia Atkinson (tennis).
Junior male: Tane Workman (hockey), Connor Henare (athletics), Kendall Peterson (swimming).
Junior female: Te Aniwaniwa Hurihanganui (rugby sevens, futsal), Sade Atkinson (tennis), Sarah Marie Davies (squash, football).
Senior male: James Goodger (rugby), Danny Brown (softball), Kieran te Whare (touch rugby),
Senior female: Shakira Baker (rugby, rugby sevens), Travestine Cook (netball, rugby sevens).
Team of the Year: Eketahuna women's triples bowls team, Makoura College junior boys rugby team, Makoura College senior A netball team.
Coach: Dayle Clarkson (netball), Niheta Veale (hockey), Mark Harris (athletics).
Service to Sport: Leigh Reiri (squash), Te Kapua Haira (netball), Larissa O'Brien (netball).