Younger set's chance to shine

An impressive array of athletes from a widening variety of sports gather at Collegiate School today for the announcement of the annual Wanganui Secondary Schools Sports Award winners.

While still aligned with the annual mainstream Wanganui sports awards, the secondary schools accolades have been held as a separate ceremony in recognition of the achievements of the younger set that performs so well on the national and international stages.

This year, a total of 70 nominations were received from eight of the 12 secondary schools throughout the wider region and they include 19 international performers, 14 national champions in their realms and cover 27 sporting codes.

Diane Howard, convenor of the judging panel, was impressed and pleased with the number and calibre of entries.

"We have a large number of individuals who compete at an international level, representing our region with real ability and sportsmanship. We also have a number of national champions and young people who are key members in teams across the regions," Howard said.

"We are pleased to again be recognising significant contributors to secondary sport within our regions through the WSS Contribution Awards.

"We love seeing nominations from all corners of the region and are especially pleased when we are able to recognise the valuable roles such as coach and official that our students undertake.'

Sport Wanganui chief executive Danny Jonas was amazed by the outstanding performances by athletes in such a wide variety of sports.

"What an impressive line-up we have at these awards," Jonas said.

"The widening variety of sports represented is an indication of the trends away from our traditional mainstream sports and a great advertisement for Wanganui."

The awards will be held in the Prince Edward Auditorium at Wanganui Collegiate School from 1.30pm today.