KEY POINTS:
Valerie Vili outmuscled her rivals once again as history was made at the annual Halberg sports awards in Auckland tonight.
The Olympic women's shot put champion captured New Zealand's ultimate sporting prize, the Halberg Award, for the second consecutive year.
The 24-year-old emerged as the big winner at
the awards dinner, repeating her performance of last year by winning the sportswoman of the year category and then claiming the supreme award.
She is only the third female to twice capture the big prize in the 60-year history of the awards, first won by cricketer Bert Sutcliffe in 1949.
Vili followed in the footsteps of fellow athlete Yvette Williams (1950 and 1952) and lightweight rower Phillipa Baker (1989 and 1994) as the only other women to win two Halberg awards, and the first to score successive wins.
She also became the 10th dual winner of the Halberg award, and the first since rower Rob Waddell, the only three-time winner - in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
Vili saw off a quality field which contained sportsman of the year, Indy 500 and Indy Racing League motor racing champion Scott Dixon, and repeat Olympic double sculls rowing gold medallists, Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell, the sports team of the year.
The awards recognise outstanding achievement by New Zealand sportsmen, women, teams and coaches over the previous 12 months.
Unable to make last year's function in Christchurch because she was competing in Auckland on the night of the awards, Vili was present tonight to receive the silver trophy from Olympic rowing single scull bronze medallist, Mahe Drysdale, the 2006 Halberg award winner.
For Vili, 2008 was a year of domination.
She won every international competition she contested, and her first throw in the Beijing Olympic final of 20.56m was a Commonwealth Games and New Zealand record throw.
It also completed a clean sweep of every major title available to her - Olympic, world indoor and outdoor, World Cup and Commonwealth Games.
The other finalists in the sportswoman of the year category were multiple Paralympics gold medallist swimmer Sophie Pascoe, bowls world champion Val Smith and triathlete Samantha Warriner.
In the sportsman of the year category, Dixon's fellow finalists were Olympic boardsailing champion Tom Ashley, Olympic cycling individual pursuit silver medallist Hayden Roulston, United States amateur golf champion Danny Lee and 1500m Olympic bronze medallist Nick Willis.
Dixon was not at the dinner but spoke to the gathering by satellite from Indianapolis.
The Evers-Swindell twins won the team category ahead of the rugby league World Cup winning Kiwis, the All Blacks and the Olympic men's teams pursuit cycling quartet who won a bronze medal.
The emerging talent category, which provides a $25,000 scholarship from Westpac Bank, was won was 18-year-old Winter X Games free-skiing medal prospect Jossi Wells.
The other finalists were karate exponent Chris Rahardja, surfer Paige Hareb and rower Graham 0berlin-Brown.
Vili's coach, Kirsten Hellier, completed a double when she won the coach of the year category.
The other finalists in this group were Dick Tonks (rowing), Grant Beck (boardsailing) and Kiwis coach Stephen Kearney.
The dinner saw the induction of two former New Zealand sporting champions to the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.
They were Anne Audain, Commonwealth Games middle distance gold and silver medallist during the 1980s, and squash ace Ross Norman, who won the 1986 World Cup title with a stunning four-set victory over then world champion Jahangir Khan, then unbeaten for more than five years.
The recipients of two other special awards, which have become regular features at the dinner, were warmly received.
Ron Shakespeare, 91 and a long-time New Zealand swimming and Olympic administrator, was presented with the lifetime achievement award.
Former New Zealand squash representative Susie Simcock, president of the World Squash Federation since 1996 and National Olympic Committee board member for more than 20 years, was presented with the leadership award.
Voting for the awards was carried out by an academy of sporting journalists and former prominent sportspeople.
Award winners:-
Halberg award: Valerie Vili (athletics).
Sportsman: Scott Dixon (motor racing).
Sportswoman: Vili.
Team: Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell (rowing).
Coach: Kirsten Hellier (athletics).
Emerging talent: Jossi Wells (skiing).
- NZPA
