Sports awards: Winners from night three
The third night of the 2020 ILT Southland Sports Awards included an emotional tribute to longstanding Southland tennis coach Peter White, along with the Southland Kia Team of the Year and Ricoh Southland Coach of the Year awards.
White was diagnosed with motor neurone disease earlier this year and died last weekend.
The 2020 Sport Southland Services to Sport award recipient will be remembered as one of the great contributors to tennis in the region. As Tennis Southland’s resident coach for 23 years, White served up tennis in schools as well as selecting and coaching junior and senior teams at representative level.
He was passionate about creating opportunities, and his approach was developed during his time playing professionally and honed under the tutelage of a master coach in Sydney.
He guided players including Taylor Allan, Damien McKenzie, Richard Mulvey and Jessie Watson to national success, along with discovering and promoting Riki and Ben McLachlan, who would go on to college scholarships at the University of California, Berkeley.
The Southland Kia Team of the Year went to the Cycling Southland elite men’s team sprint combination of Nick Kergozou, Tom Sexton and Conor Shearing. Despite being better known as endurance riders, this world-class line-up defied a heavy programme to take out the elite men’s team sprint title at this year’s national championships.
The Ricoh Southland Coach of the Year continued a strong awards week for athletics, with Chris Knight recognised for his feats both home and abroad.
Selected as both the coach and manager of the New Zealand team for the Pacific Games in Samoa, Knight’s talents as both a jumps and throwing technician continued to be recognised at the national level.
‘‘It’s always a great time to be involved, working with that 12 to 19 age group,’’ Knight said. ‘‘It’s always an honour, because you are not only shaping them as athletes, you are also having some influence over what their personality is.’’
He said Sam Colyer’s silver medal at the Oceania Championships and the progression of Quinn Hartley were highlights over the past year.
Sport Southland hosts the ILT Southland Sports Awards on behalf of the Southland Amateur Sports Trust and is presenting the annual celebration online for the first time.
The penultimate night of the awards will be presented on southlandtimes.co.nz from 7pm tonight, with the Vodafone Junior Sportsperson of the Year and the final Sport Southland Services to Sport award for 2020.