Rowers in running for Halberg team accolade

Kerri Gowler Photo/File

Whanganui's star rowers Kerri Gowler and Rebecca Scown have again been nominated in the Microsoft Surface Team of the Year group of the 53rd Halberg Awards, with Gowler double dipping in the category.

Four rowing crews are up for consideration amongst the 13 nominees in the team category, which is expected to be hotly contested amongst the All Blacks, NZ Breakers, Black Caps, NZ cyclists, the 49er sailing crew and tae kwan do team.

At September's 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, Gowler and women's coxless pairs partner Grace Prendergast won silver, coming in 3.76s behind British Olympic champions Heather Stanning and Helen Glover after a strong sprint to finish.

Gowler and Prendergast then backed up 24 hours later in the women's 8 final, with Scown on stroke, where they again won silver behind the United States, impressive considering the eight had only been put together in April.

As well as Gowler's double silver act, Scown continued her streak of world championship and Olympic medals, which stretches back to 2009.

The rest of the crew in the women's eight were Genevieve Behrent, Kelsey Bevan, Ruby Tew, Emma Dyke, Kayla Pratt, and cox Francie Turner.

Both the pair and the eight are up for the Halberg, giving Gowler two nominations.

The Halberg Disability Sport Foundation announced 63 nominations have been received for six categories at the awards - "the nation's pre-eminent event to honour and celebrate sporting achievements by New Zealand teams and athletes in 2015".

Twenty seven different sports are represented in the nominations which are received from national sports organisations and an independent voting academy.

Both the Team of the Year and the High Performance Sport New Zealand Sportsman of the Year received the most nods with 13 apiece.

Nominees in the Sportsman, Sportswoman, Disabled Sportsperson and Team of the Year categories will all be eligible for the supreme Halberg Award. Nominations will now go to the awards judges which includes former athletes, coaches and sports journalists.

The judges will review the achievements submitted to decide the finalists which will be announced in early January. Performances by athletes or teams which take place up until December 31 are open to nomination.

Ten awards are presented at the 53rd Halberg Awards, which will be held on February 18 at Vector Arena in Auckland and televised live on Sky Sport.