Tia Potae on her way to winning the 2023 New Zealand Merino Shears open woolhandling final in Alexandra. Photo / Barbara Newton
Tia Potae on her way to winning the 2023 New Zealand Merino Shears open woolhandling final in Alexandra. Photo / Barbara Newton
South Otago woolhandler Tia Potae has claimed a berth in transtasman test-match competition after an absence of 10 years by taking out the New Zealand Merino Shears open woolhandling title in Alexandra on Saturday.
The Merino Shears is the opening competition of Shearing Sports New Zealand’s calendar of 60 showsduring the season which ends in April.
Potae has competed sparingly at times as she has pursued other interests in the wool industry over recent years.
She represented New Zealand in the annual home-and-away series in 2005-2006 and again in 2013-2014, each time as a result of winning the New Zealand Woolhandler of the Year title at the Otago Shears in Balclutha.
In 2021, Potae won the inaugural Primary Industries Award, at the 2021 New Zealand Women of Influence Awards, for work supporting shearers, woolhandlers and their families through the Covid-19 outbreak.
In the Merino Shears final, Marton woolhandler Logan Kamura was second and four-time Alexandra open winner Joel Henare, from Gisborne, was third.
Potae was constantly on her game and also won the Gina Nathan Trophy for the Best Quality Points through the heats, quarterfinals, semi-finals and final over the two days of the championships.
Meanwhile, world championships representative Leon Samuels, of Southland, added to a string of varying national title wins by winning the open shearing final.
The win means Samuels retains his place in the transtasman series, which kicks off later this month, the first test during the Australian National Shearing and Woolhandling Championships in Jamestown, South Australia.
Second and third respectively in the six-man shearing final were fellow Southland shearers Brett Roberts and Nathan Stratford.
Leon Samuels adds another national title to his collection with a 2023 New Zealand Merino Shears open shearing final win in Alexandra. Photo / Barbara Newton
The senior shearing final was won by Aiden Tarrant, from Taumarunui and the senior woolhandling title was won by Krome Elers, of Mataura.
The junior woolhandling final was won by Lucy Elers, also of Mataura.
A special feature was the performances of members of an Australian First Nations Indigenous team, brought to New Zealand by trainer and Australia-based New Zealander Samson Te Whata.
Three of the team were in the six-man senior shearing final.
This included Tyron Cochrane, who at the age of 18 last March, won the Golden Shears junior shearing championship on a similar trip to Masterton.
The open shearing heats also constituted the first round of the 2023-2024 PGG Wrightson Vetmed National Shearing Circuit, the second round of which will be shorn at the Waimate Spring Shears Shearing and Woolhandling Championships, which will be held on Friday and Saturday this week.
The Merino championships attracted almost 130 competitors across the two shearing and three woolhandling grades.
