Talents recognised

OTAGO touch stars are continuing to earn national recognition.

Seven Otago athletes have been selected for the Touch New Zealand under16 development campaign later this year.

Charli Sinclair, Sydney Marshall, Georgina Te Kanawa, Giselle Hagan and Meg Adams have all been selected for the under16 girls squad, and Jeremiah TuhegaVaitupu has been named in the under16 boys squad.

Touch Otago operations manager Jarrod Powell has been also been selected as assistant coach for the under16 girls squad.

Their selection comes off the back of 17 Otago athletes representing New Zealand at the Asia Pacific Youth Touch Cup in Australia.

Jake Fowler (boys under18), Demi McAlwee (girls under18) and Hamish Faulks (men’s under20) were named MVP of their respective teams at the competition.

New Zealand Commonwealth Games coach Glen Wilson (left) coaches Dunedin’s Piere Tapsell (19) during a session at the Squash Otago courts yesterday.

Wilson, of Auckland, is in Dunedin this weekend to visit family and is running individual and group coaching workshops for juniors and seniors all weekend.

The sessions are catered for grassroots to elite players and aim to help Dunedin players sharpen their skills. Wilson was a threetime New Zealand champion during his playing career, and won bronze at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and silver at the 2004 world championships, all in the mixed doubles.

He was the head coach for the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games teams and was inducted into the Squash Hall of Fame last year.