Winning Halberg tops Hall’s super summer
Walsh wins top Halberg award
IT was worthwhile for Adam Hall to stay home this summer.
Sunny skies, fatherhood and now a Halberg award winner.
Hall (31) picked up the paraathlete award at the Halberg sports awards in Auckland last night.
He won the award on the back of a great year where he picked up two Olympic medals.
He claimed gold in the slalom and bronze in the super combined at the Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang.
He was also named as a corecipient of the 2018 Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award.
He was the first New Zealander to receive the award. It has been presented to the female and male athlete who ‘‘best exemplify the spirit of the Games and inspire and excite the world’’ since 1988.
It was quite some honour and they kept coming.
He was named Otago Sportsman of the year in May, Snow Sport New Zealand athlete of the year in October and wrapped up his 2018 competition season with a silver medal in the slalom at the World Para Alpine Skiing Europa Cup in St Moritz, Switzerland.
Usually at this time of year, Hall is competing in Europe. He has had 30 winters in a row.
But this southern hemisphere summer, Hall and his wife, Elitsa, have been based in Wanaka to await the birth of their first child.
It duly happened about 10 days ago with a beautiful baby girl arriving.