Hamish Kerr wins men's high jump in latest Diamond League event
New Zealand's Olympic champion Hamish Kerr won the men's high jump at the latest Diamond League event in Morocco this morning - but he's still seeking improvement. Sports Reporter Bridget Tunnicliffe spoke to Lisa Owen.
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RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Netball: Tenacious Magic midcourter impresses as ball-winner
Magics Georgie Edgecombe Photo: DJ Mills / Georgie Edgecombe's ball-hunting abilities in a position that doesn't usually shine has been turning heads in the ANZ Premiership. The Magic midcourter has been the most consistent performer in a team that struggled until earlier this week when the Magic had a big win over the Stars to notch up their first win of the season. The 24-year-old's explosiveness off the mark and closing speed have seen her win a lot of ball at wing defence, a position which requires a lot of graft but doesn't necessary get the rewards. But after four rounds, Edgecombe is in the top 10 for intercepts and sits fourth for deflections behind circle defenders Carys Stythe, Catherine Hall, and Jane Watson. Edgecombe grew up in Hamilton and lives in Cambridge where she went to St Peter's for her college years. While she was at St Peter's, she played alongside some of the country's top up and coming female athletes in two other sports, including Tall Fern Charlisse Leger-Walker. Edgecombe won national sporting titles for her school and representative sides in basketball and touch. St Peter's were national New Zealand Secondary Schools basketball champions. Leger-Walker, who has made a name for herself in women's college basketball in the United States, spearheaded the college A-team, alongside fellow Tall Fern Ella Bradley, who also plays in the USA. Former Tall Fern Leanne Walker coached the St Peter's team back then. "I was keen to be a part of the basketball team and have some fun. Obviously Charlisse is a bit of a GOAT so it was cool to play alongside her and her mum Leanne coaching us, so we had a pretty strong team led by Charlisse and Ella," Edgecombe said. Edgecombe also played in the U18 Waikato touch team when they became national champions. Members of that side would go on to represent New Zealand in touch and sevens. "Touch was definitely my summer sport that I gravitated towards and would still love to play but there's not much time in the year at the moment but loved touch and that kind of whānau based sport that I grew up playing, I spent a lot of summers on the touch field." Charlisse Leger-Walker of New Zealand Tall Ferns. Photo: Photosport Edgecombe's start in netball was typical. "I started playing when I was about eight or nine. I was definitely super sporty and netball was just one of the sports I participated in," Edgecombe said. "My parents encouraged us, I've got two older brothers we did as many sports as we could, mostly as a social thing at first and as we got a bit older got a bit more competitive and wanted to take it more seriously." At St Peter's she came under the tutelage of former Silver Fern Amigene Metcalfe, who would later become the coach of the Magic when Edgecombe first joined the team. Edgecombe captained the Senior A netball team for the three years that she was in the side. In her final year at St Peters, she was head girl and very busy. "I tried to play those other sports as long as I could but going into my final year was probably when I thought 'I could continue netball after school' and started thinking about it a bit more seriously. In year 13, I focussed mainly on netball, I still played touch in the summer but in those winter months it was just netball, it was school, it was reps." Her decision to focus on netball paid off - later that year she was named in the NZ Secondary Schools Squad for 2018. In her first two year's out of college, Edgecombe was a Magic training partner and played for the feeder team in the National Netball League. In 2020, she made the NZ U21 squad ahead of the 2021 Netball World Youth Cup, which was cancelled due to Covid. Her second season as a fully contracted Magic player in 2022 was a baptism of fire, when she was thrust into the wing attack position to help cover injury. She was mostly a circle defender at high school and the new position was counter-intuitive to what she was used to. In the season's since then she has mostly played wing defence and a bit at centre. "Wing defence is where I feel most comfortable and feel like I can have the most impact on a game at the moment but I do enjoy when I get to play centre just having the ball in your hands a bit more." Georgie Edgecombe (right). Photo: Photosport Now in her fifth year at the Magic, Edgecombe has taken a number of stunning intercepts this season. "That's every defenders most exciting part of the game and what we work towards in our trainings. I think wing defence can sometimes be a bit of a grind position where you do a lot of work out front to set things up for the defenders behind you, but it's cool in our defensive unit we've got structures where anyone can get ball. "It's just putting yourself in the right positions and definitely exciting and an adrenaline rush when you get those cool intercepts." What are the physical attributes that allow her to cover so much ground? "Agility comes into it but a lot of it I would say is fitness, having a good engine to be able to keep going for the full 60 minutes. My fitness is something I worked hard on in the off season and it allows me to keep running, that's my mentality. The wing attacks are running everywhere so I have to try keep up with them." Edgecombe was named in the Silver Ferns development squad for the first time last year, played for NZA in training matches against the Silver Ferns, and played for the FAST5 Ferns in November. She graduated from Waikato University at the end of 2022 with a Bachelor of Communications and is still figuring out what she wants to do with it. Edgecombe is not afraid to say she has her sights on the Silver Ferns. "For sure, that's definitely the goal long-term. For now my main focus is helping the Magic to be successful ... and whatever will be in the future whether it's this season or in the next season ...hopefully, it's definitely the goal." Veteran Magic circle-defender Georgia Tong said it was an asset having someone as tenacious as Edgecombe in the team. "You know that she's always going to have your back and she's just going to go and go and go again and she's a really positive person as well. Being on the line next to her is really good when you know you haven't got a few balls in awhile, she's always like 'come on we've got this next one'," Tong said. The Magic meet the Stars again on Monday night in Auckland.
Otago Daily Times
an hour ago
- Otago Daily Times
Heavy snowfall welcome start for athletes with Winter Olympics on horizon
Heavy snowfall has marked the start of an exciting ski season in Wanaka as New Zealand athletes work to get into peak condition with only eight months left until the Winter Olympics. Ten centimetres of snow covered the Cardrona and Treble Cone skifields yesterday morning and more snow is forecast for today. This year the skifields will play host not only to tourists but also snowsport athletes, who will be working hard to prepare for the Milan Winter Olympics being held in February next year. Snow Sports New Zealand head coach park and pipe Tom Willmott said the organisation had 20 athletes in its park and pipe pathway and the goal for this season was to fine-tune their performance in preparation for the Olympics. "It's all about being in peak performance by the games. So we're not making mega shifts and improvements, but we're probably fine-tuning people's performances," he said. Although there will be no elite winter games or events this year, athletes can look forward to the Continental Cup series at Remarkables and Cardrona in August this year. Willmott said most New Zealand athletes, including medallists Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Luca Harrington, were in Europe or North America at present, either taking time off or engaging in summer training until July. Once they returned, their training would include some gym time, field practice and even workshops to mentally prepare them for the Olympics, he said. "We've got some workshops delivered by the New Zealand Olympic Committee, which is all about getting the team together, building the team and connecting to our unique Kiwi roots." To prepare for a busy season of training Snow Sports NZ had planned to open a dry slopes facility in Wanaka on Monday but the opening had been postponed due to the weather, he said. This did bring up the usual concern around snowfall for the season as it would impact the training facilities, Willmott said. "There's always a concern about what Mother Nature is going to deliver ... The quality of our facilities can be impacted by the volume of snow that we get but there's some good signs out there right now." Cardrona and Treble Cone skifields general manager Laura Hedley said the snowguns would be working hard over the next few days. "We know how important a pre-Olympic season is, and for us making sure we have the best training facilities possible is a real source of pride for our team," she said. The Cardrona and Treble Cone fields are set to open on June 14 with a new lift and terrain at the Soho Basin. The summer was a busy time for the team as they worked towards opening two new lifts, a redesigned base area and 150ha of new terrain to ski and ride. "We've undertaken a massive development project over the last few months, and there are still a few pieces to complete in the next week or so — but we have a fantastic team," she said.
Otago Daily Times
an hour ago
- Otago Daily Times
Initiative ‘fantastic' chance to learn
John Marrable is always looking for ways to improve. The Dunedin para athlete recently wrapped up his time as part of the second intake for the para sport collective, a Paralympics New Zealand initiative to provide more support for athletes. The collective involved three in-person camps and monthly Zoom sessions over the past year, with topics including skills, nutrition, mental resilience, recovery and injuries. A range of sports, including shooting, taekwondo, equestrian, snowboarding and swimming were covered. Marrable was one of three table tennis players among the cohort, and each athlete worked through personalised performance programmes. "I'm grateful to Table Tennis New Zealand for putting my name forward to be part of the para sport collective and also the New Zealand coach John Tuki,"Marrable said. "They've been really good support." Marrable, who has been involved in para sport since an accident as a child left him in a wheelchair, relished being part of the collective and listening to Paralympians share their stories. "I've been involved in para sport almost ever since I had an accident, so a lot of it was great to get reinforced where I'm heading and then also up-skilled with a lot of the changes in dietary requirements or that type of thing." Programmes such as the para collective were important for all athletes but especially in para sport as there was the "added challenge of having your disability or impairment". Being able to bounce ideas off athletes who fundamentally understood what others went through, and had various different strategies for travelling with additional equipment or helping their bodies respond in different situations, was invaluable. "It was just fantastic meeting other like-minded people." Marrable is part of the New Zealand para table tennis development squad and hopes to be included in the Oceania championships in Auckland later this year. He is also a seventh dan in karate. "The two sports really go hand in hand, because through the karate you're doing your stretching, your aerobic work, plus reaction time. "Then of course with the table tennis I'm doing the ball skills and stretching." Marrable has tried his hand at countless sports through the years. He felt New Zealand had always had great representation at the Paralympics and world championships. But there had been great improvements across the board, and ParaFed Otago and the Halberg Foundation played a big role in helping get more youth involved. "As the sports improved, the athletes have had to improve and really it's people's attitude as well. "Not the athletes or the coaches... but sometimes people didn't really think that the paras were serious athletes. "I think sometimes that can affect the athlete and that's, again, knowing that the opportunities are there. "Any sport you can think of can be adapted." Dunedin was fortunate to have a good athletics programmes through Athletics New Zealand para lead Raylene Bates, and strong wheelchair rugby and table tennis programmes, he said.
