Press Releases
SPARC Salutes Halberg Awards Winners
5 Feb 2010
SPARC congratulates the winners of the 2009 Westpac Halberg Sports Awards announced on 4 February.
- Westpac Halberg Award: Valerie Vili (athletics)
- Sports champions of the decade: Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell (rowing)
- Westpac New Zealand Sportsman of the Year: Mahe Drysdale (rowing)
- Westpac New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year: Valerie Vili (athletics)
- Westpac New Zealand Sports Team of the Year: men’s senior pair – Eric Murray and Hamish Bond (rowing)
- SPARC Coach of the Year: Richard Tonks (rowing)
- Emerging talent award: Sam Webster (cycling)
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SPARC Coach of the Year, Richard Tonks. Photo courtesy of PhotoSport. |
All the winners have proven themselves on the world stage at the elite level. Their performances are also a reflection of the calibre of the high performance network in New Zealand including coaches, sports science and medical professionals, national sports organisations, and the New Zealand Academy of Sport.
SPARC is proud to support these athletes through investment in the high performance network including funding national sports organisation programmes, provision of performance enhancement grants (PEGs) to athletes, and administration of the Prime Ministers’ Sports Scholarships.
SPARC Leadership Award – Sir John Anderson
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Peter Miskimmin presents SPARC Leadership Award to Sir John Anderson. Photo courtesy of PhotoSport |
SPARC is proud to sponsor the Leadership Award. This year’s recipient Sir John Anderson is a true visionary in New Zealand sport. The following is the citation read by SPARC CEO Peter Miskimmin at the awards ceremony;
The recipient of the SPARC New Zealand Leadership Award is one of the most courageous people I know.
Courageous because he has been called upon time and time again to make the hard decisions – not only in sport, but in diverse areas such as business, education, employment and health.
He has been shoulder tapped - but never ankle tapped - by successive governments, businesses and sport organisations. This person has over the years developed a reputation as a ‘trouble shooter’, the ‘go to guy’ and ‘Mr Fix It’.
While the recipient of the SPARC New Zealand Leadership Award has operated at the highest levels of governance and decision making in sport, he is essentially, and I would say most importantly, a humble club man with a true love of sport.
That love of sport has been exhibited through his years of service and involvement with the Karori cricket club.
And while his big hitting exploits on the pitch are behind him now, he remains very much a loyal and involved Karori Club man. He also gained representative honours for Wellington rugby and received a University Blue for Squash.
It is tonight’s recipient’s skill as a strategic thinker and ability to take the long view which has been of enormous benefit to sport.
He took over the reins of New Zealand Cricket in 1995 and served as Chairman with distinction for 13 years. During that time he helped transform a sport organisation into a modern, vibrant and sustainable entity.
His talent in cricket administration wasn’t confined to New Zealand. He was called on by the International Cricket Council as a director. In 1996 the ICC was in crisis. Tonight’s recipient, not for the first time in his life, was tasked with finding a solution to a difficult and contentious problem. His proposals were adopted including the highly successful international tours programme. His work revolutionised the ICC structure and have helped make it the highly successful global sports body it is today. It also firmly established tonight’s recipient as a major player on the world stage and earned him international respect.
It was a great honour and a privilege last year to be able to utilise the services of this extraordinary individual to lead a review of New Zealand rugby league. What some would have seen as a hospital pass of an assignment, this person accepted it with relish. He applied all his skills and talent and produced a report which was accepted universally by rugby league.
He was knighted in 1994. He was the first recipient of the Sir Peter Blake Medal in 2005 for demonstrating leadership in business, sport, the environment and community. He has led from the front, and continues to lead from the front – still being asked to make those tough calls and take on problems others shy away from.
Tonight’s recipient is unashamedly ‘old school’ in his conduct in that he is a true gentleman – quiet, unassuming, courteous, but never afraid to be forthright when he has to be. He is a man for due process, but also has that quality essential for all leaders – vision.
It is with great pleasure and a tremendous honour for me to announce that the recipient of the SPARC Leadership Award is Sir John Anderson.
Updated | 05 Feb 2010.
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