Woolhandling legend dies

FAREWELL: Joanne Kumeroa at the Golden Shears in Masterton last year. PHOTO/PETE NIKOLAISON

WOOLHANDLING competition legend Joanne Kumeroa died on Thursday after a three-year fight against cancer.

From the Whanganui River area, Kumeroa was 45 and won more World, Golden Shears and New Zealand titles than any other competitor. She was widely regarded as the David Fagan of woolhandling.

She won the World Individual Championships in Edinburgh in 2003 and in Toowoomba two years later, when she also won the first of three World teams titles, the others in Norway in 2008 and Masterton in 2012.

A veteran of 14 of Masterton's Golden Shears open woolhandling finals from 1990 to 2013, she won the big title six times - in 1995, 2001, 2004 and consecutively from 2010 to 2012.

She also won the New Zealand Open Championships final in Te Kuiti six times, in 1992, 1995-96, 2001-02 and 2007, along with dozens of other titles across all categories of woolhandling, including the fine wool of the merino.

Her last Golden Shears Open final, when runner-up two years ago to new-era champion Joel Henare, was tinged with emotion, taking place in the throes of her treatment in Australia, where she was living, and as she fought to heighten women's awareness of cancer.

"I didn't come here for me," she said at the time. "I'm here for all those other women who may have cancer, and need to do something about it."

At the same event, new open shearing champion Rowland Smith, who lost his mother to cancer, donated his $3000 winning purse to the cause, and Kumeroa returned to Australia immediately afterwards to take part in a Ducks on the Pond cancer awareness shearing fundraiser in Victoria.

She also continued to mentor newer woolhandlers, having trained with New Zealand wool harvest training providers Tectra and with Australia Wool Innovation, and was also an accomplished shearer, with best tallies of over 400 in a day.

Mavis Mullins, a two-times Golden Shears open woolhandling title winner, who has become a leading businesswoman and who was President of the Golden Shears International Shearing Championship Society, had this to say yesterday:

"It's the passing of a legend. She is the woolhandling equivalent of David Fagan."

"In a lot of ways," she said emphatically, "she has fought a valiant fight with cancer."

Shearing Sport New Zealand chairman Gavin Rowland said: "She was a fantastic competitor, ambassador and role model."

"She, as did David Fagan with shearing, set the mark for woolhandling," he said.

"Also, she has inspired and trained a lot of the younger woolhandlers."

Among them was Henare, who, on Saturday after adding another New Zealand Open title to his third Golden Shears title won last month, said: "This is another one for you, Jo."