Kauri Club Scholarships awarded
Four Northland athletes have been successful in receiving a share of $7000 given out by Sport Northland recently to assist them over the coming year.
Brendan Marais (gymnastics, Whanga¯rei, Daniel Hammond (tennis, Whanga¯rei), Kahleah Nathan (rugby, Kaeo) and Will Tattersfield (rowing, Whanga¯rei) were all awarded scholarships based on their recent achievements.
Each of the athletes are achieving at a high national level, with some representing New Zealand in their chosen sports, despite the past year being difficult for sport competitions due to Covid-19 interruptions.
Will Tattersfield recently won gold at the North Island club rowing champs as part of the U17 double sculls team and was 1st in U17 single sculls at the Auckland College Sport Head of the Harbour regatta; Kahleah Nathan is a talented young female rugby player who was selected into the training squad for the Northland team for the Farrah Palmer Cup women’s competition, is a member of the Northland U18 women’s team and captain of the Kerikeri High School girls’ Condor sevens team; Daniel Hammond was selected for the NZ Junior Davis Cup team to compete in the Asia/ Oceania qualifying event in 2020 (but did not travel due to Covid 19); and Brendan Marais is one of the few Northland male gymnasts to compete at level 7 nationally, where he is ranked 15th overall and was second overall at the NZ secondary schools championships.
James Morris, Northland Sports Talent Development Panel member says, “The panel was delighted with the calibre of athletes who applied and congratulate the four who were selected on their scholarships and their achievements to date. We look forward to their ongoing success in their respective sports and to them representing Northland with pride on the national and international stage and striving to reach their potential”.
Applications were received from 17 athletes across 10 codes. The scholarships are aimed at high-performing athletes to assist them for a year to further their sporting endeavours, such as attending national and international competitions, and national coaching camps.
These new scholarships take the total allocated to talented Northland sportspeople since the Kauri Club was formed in 2000 to $249,000. The funding was received from the family of the late Garry Frew and the Brian Maunsell Memorial Trust fund.
To enable these scholarships to be awarded, Sport Northland has partnered with the Northland
Community Foundation (NCF) to establish the Northland Sports Endowment Fund, with the hope of building a legacy fund for the development of sport in Northland.
The Kauri Club Fund, which sits under the umbrella of this wider sports fund, already has a capital sum of over $250,000 – the NCF invests this money through Craigs Investment Partners and the annual proceeds are used to fund the scholarships. Anyone wanting to contribute to this fund for talented Northland athletes can contact NCF general manager Greta Buchanan on 021 558 224 or email greta@northlandcommunityfoundation. org.nz