Here is an article that featured in the Timaru Herald today about the upcoming South Canterbury Sports Awards. There are two skaters from the South Canterbury Club nominated, myself and Dahna Penty in the junior category.

Top sports stars battle for award

By STU PIDDINGTON - The Timaru Herald

The annual South Canterbury Sports Awards promise to be an intriguing night on Friday with world-class competitors vying for the main title.

The 12 nominated for the top award will not be easy to separate, with many having national honours and success at international level.

Marc Ryan's Olympic bronze medal in the individual pursuit at Beijing will be hard to beat.

He does, however, have hot competition from shooter Natalie Rooney, who took out the World "Down the Line" Championships in Ireland; and Nicole Begg, who won two silver medals at the World Inline Championships. Begg also finished second overall in the World Inline Cup marathon series.

Others nominated include national rally champion Hayden Paddon, New Zealand powerlifting representative Natasha Armstrong, New Zealand's blade shearer representative at the world championships William Michelle and New Zealand Heartland XV player Eric Smith.

National rowing under-21 quad titleholder Andrew Darling, footballer Kara Wilson, New Zealand track walk champion Nathaniel Shaw, White Ferns squad member Rowan Milburn and hockey player Amber Boyce are also in the running.

Michelle is the oldest nominated at 51 while the youngest is 18-year-old Wilson.

Young Sportsperson of the Year will also be a hotly contested award with eight of the 14 nominees having represented New Zealand and most of the rest having national titles.

Among the favourites are New Zealand Schools halfback Nick Annear, New Zealand tennis representative Emily Fanning, emerging junior Tall Fern Dallas Frederikson, along with New Zealand rowing representative Fin Scott and walking exponent Daniel Lord.

With each sport allowed to nominate only one person, Stephen Burt, who rowed at the World Junior Rowing Championships, missed out to Fin Scott.

Athlete Tom Walsh, who qualified for the World Junior Athletics Championships and broke both the under-16 discus and shotput records this season, missed out in favour of Daniel Lord.

Both could have been strong contenders to take out the young sportsperson title.

The Herald understands Sport South Canterbury is looking at allowing sports associations to nominate more than one athlete if they have two or more that have appeared internationally.

Others nominated in the Young Sportsperson of the Year category are New Zealand cyclist Tim Daly, national under-19 marathon mountainbike champion Rachel Richards and New Zealand secondary schools netball trialist Kelsi Patterson.

Joining them are New Zealand skier Tim Bowman, nationally ranked swimmer Daniel Hickey, football talent Amber Mulhall-Larsen, cricketer Tom Walsh, under-20 national bowls champion Sam Morton and national inline track and bank skating champion Dahna Penty.

The teams title looks to be between Timaru Rowing Club's men's club eight and Netball South Canterbury's under-19 team.

Coach of the Year will again be another fiercely competed category.

Basketball's Sean Fuller, rowing's Dan Kelly, powerlifting's Brian Armstrong and athletics coach Don Garland have all coached at elite levels overseas.

Jonathan Nelson is the only nominee in the Sportsperson with Disability category, so he will retain his title from last year.

The awards evening will feature a special award for a "homegrown" talent that has featured on the international stage.

The guest speakers for the night are twice Olympic double sculls champions Georgina Earl and Caroline Evers-Swindell.

The twin sisters beat their German rivals by one-hundredth of a second in Beijing to claim their second gold and have since retired.