Junior sports awards finalists

The ASB Otago Sports Awards begin this week and Adrian Seconi gets the occasion under way with a profile on the three finalists in the Mercy Hospital Junior Sports Women of the Year category.

Swimmer

Erika Fairweather

Erika the eel? Fairweather the fish?

Whatever you call her, chances are by the time you have blurted out Erika Fairweather’s name she would have swum on by.

She is quick. So quick it would not be a surprise to see the 16yearold on the podium in Paris in 2024.

And do not rule her out as a starter for the Tokyo Olympics next year. In February she dipped under the Olympic qualifying time for the women’s 400m freestyle with a time of 4min 7.23sec to cap off a tremendous 12 months in the pool.

There were many highlights but top of the list was the gold medal effort at the 2019 Fina World Junior Championships in Hungary in August.

She recorded a personal best of 1min 57.97sec in the 200m freestyle final to hold off impressive Australian Lani Pallister. Fairweather was just outside the medals in the 400m freestyle, finishing fourth.

She also collected gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle races at the New Zealand championships in June and, in April last year, eclipsed Rebecca Perrott’s 43yearold 400m freestyle New Zealand agegroup record.

Skier

Alice Robinson

Aggressive, nimble, balanced.

Queenstown teenager Alice Robinson (18) has mastered the art of going downhill really fast.

The alpine skier claimed two world cup gold medals during the qualifying period.

Her first was an impressive victory in the giant slalom in Austria in October. She edged reigning world champion Mikaela Shiffrin by 0.06sec. What made that effort even more special was she had a crook knee having crashed in the leadup to the event. Then in February she returned to the top step on the podium with victory in the giant slalom in Slovenia. With that win, and the many other top10 finishes during the season, she joined three others as the joint giant slalom No 1ranked skier — the first New Zealander to achieve that feat.

A few days earlier she won the emerging talent category at the Halberg Awards and completed an impressive 12 months with a fourth in Super G at the junior world ski championships in Norway in March.

She carves her way around the bends rather drifting, and that bold approach has enabled her to shave off valuable seconds and put the skiing community on notice.

Snowboarder

Zoi ZadowskiSynnott

Wanaka’s Zoi ZadowskiSynnott burst through the veil of public consciousness with a stunning effort to win bronze in the big air competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics two years ago. The 19yearold snowboarder followed up that with a remarkable run in 2019.

The queen of the slopes collected gold medals in the slopestyle at the world championships, X Games and US Open. She also nabbed silver in the big air at the X Games.

For her efforts she nabbed backtoback Otago Sports Awards supreme titles and a trip up the red carpet when she received an Espy nomination.

But the past 12 months — a triumph all the same — have not been as successful. The highlight was the gold medal win in the slopestyle at the X Games in Norway in March this year. She also finished sixth in the big air at the meeting and sixth in the slopestyle at the US Open.

The podium has proved elusive other than the golden moment in Norway but her reputation as one of the best in the world is firmly intact.