Sporting Excellence Awarded at Adams Centre

Excellence in sport was recognised at the University of Waikato Adams Centre for High Performance last Friday evening, when the athletes of the Adams Academy came together for their end of year awards.

Top honors went to international hockey umpire Kelly Hudson who was awarded Industrial Athletic Athlete of the Year for her performance on the international stage. Hudson was recognised for umpiring her 150th international test at the recent Tokyo Olympics, her third Olympic Games. Kelly is currently in the top panel of international umpires worldwide and works for the Tauranga Hockey Association as the Officiating Development Officer and is responsible for developing umpires in the Bay of Plenty.

The Athlete of the Year honour is closely followed by Xplosive Supplements Tauranga Emerging Athlete of the Year, which was awarded to New Zealand representative in surf lifesaving, waterpolo and swimming, Gus Shivnan. Shivnan is part of the 2021-22 Surf Life Saving High Performance Squad, Swimming NZ National Age Group Squad and NZ Born 04’ Waterpolo Squad.

Smiths Sport Shoes Tauranga Junior Emerging Athlete of the Year (under 20 men) was awarded to freeride skiing athlete Luke McConnell who has been selected for the New Zealand team for the Freeride Junior World Championships in Austria in January 2022.

Smiths Sport Shoes Tauranga Junior Emerging Athlete of the Year (under 20 women) was awarded to Anna Brock for her vast achievements in surfing at a regional and national level. Including being the overall winner of U16 girls Billabong Grom Series in 2021 and second overall in the 2021 NZ Junior Series.

The other accolades awarded on the night included: Zespri Road to Recovery award for dedication to recovery after injury, which went to Christie Yule for rugby. Zespri Resilience Award for perseverance with training after a year of cancelled events, went to Evolution Aquatics swimmer Isaac Williams and the Industrial Athletic Mahi Award went to wrestler Isaac Dobbs. Five diligence awards were presented to Eva Morris, synchronised swimming, Kylen Sholmann, volleyball & beach volleyball, Tash Wakelin & Amelia Harvey, cricket, and Brooke Summerfield, athletics - track and field.

Several other high performing athletes from the Academy were also recognised for their performance and diligence to their training and sport discipline at the awards evening.

All recognised athletes perform at international, national, and regional levels and form part of the 103 strong athlete team at the Adams Academy. The Academy is a high-performance program based at the UoW Adams Centre for High Performance that supports aspiring and professional Bay of Plenty athletes with the full support services they need to become future world champions; many are our future Olympians.