Sports Chat for 20 August 2025
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RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Athletics: Tom Walsh pipped for podium in Switzerland
Tom Walsh during the Athletics Diamond League Silesia meeting, 2025. Photo: JAKUB PORZYCKI / AFP New Zealand shot putter Tom Walsh has finished fourth at the latest Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, missing the podium by just two centimetres. The indoor world champion recorded a best throw of 21.47m, just short of American Adrian Piperi's 21.49m, which was good enough for bronze. Piperi recorded his biggest distance with his final throw, pushing Walsh out of the bronze medal position. Walsh's best was 22cm short of his season best. American Olympic silver medallist Joe Kovacs won gold with a distance of 22.04m, and Italian Leonardo Fabbri took silver with 21.77m. Walsh will compete in the Diamond League finals in Zurich next week. The Swiss meeting was held in torrential rain, which forced an early finish to the non-Diamond League women's pole vault. New Zealand's Olivia McTaggart was one of five athletes who cleared 4.35m before the competition was called off. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Hundreds of RSE workers gear up for sports festival in Tauranga
Members of the EastPack rugby and volleyball teams after they claimed the titles in the two sports at the RSE Sports Day last year. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Iliesa Tora Close to 500 workers from around the Bay of Plenty area will participate in the RSE Sports Festival in Tauranga on Saturday. Event director Neil Alton said around 16 packhouses and orchard contractors will be represented at the event. Alton said the event is a unique collaboration between the kiwifruit industry, local sporting groups including rugby, football, volleyball and touch rugby, and local sponsors to provide a day off the tools for hardworking RSE workers. The Sports Festival was held for the first time in 2024 with 38 teams involved, representing 11 packhouses. Alton said after resoundingly positive feedback in 2024, the RSE Sports Festival returns for its second year at the Blake Park, Mount Maunganui. The Sports Festival concept grew out of an RSE workers' rugby game played in August 2023 between packhouses Seeka and Eastpack. Alton said the game attracted 60 players from each company, but only 25 players could be accommodated in each team. The game attracted a loud and large crowd, and from the day, those involved wondered what could be done to accommodate the high level of interest. Soon after, the Sports Festival concept was created. The Sports Festival was held for the first time in 2024 , with 38 teams involved, representing 11 packhouses. Local Zespri government and community affairs manager Rachel Lynch said Zespri is proud to partner with Bay of Plenty Rugby for the RSE Sport Festival. She said the event is a celebration of "another bumper harvest with some of the most important people in the kiwifruit industry". "The work carried out across Bay of Plenty orchards this season has been monumental, with more than 200 million trays of New Zealand fruit picked, packed and heading offshore this season," Lynch said. "It wouldn't be possible without our RSE workforce and this festival is a way to thank and publicly acknowledge the RSE community and the important work they do." Organising committee member and Bay of Plenty Rugby manager Ati Aaifou-Olive said the union is always looking at ways to connect with their community and the RSE Sports Festival is a new way in which sport can give RSE workers a positive experience while in New Zealand. "We are really pleased to have the support of WaiBOP Football and BOP Volleyball who also want to engage with different communities to grow their sports," he said. "We are also really grateful that Zespri, Health & Travel Insurance and RSE Travel have joined us as sponsors of the event. "The focus of the day is all about "Connections, Fun, Culture and Family". We are very lucky to have the RSE workers supporting the Kiwifruit industry and its going to be an awesome day to celebrate their hard work and contribution through this event." The day's program will roll off with the opening ceremony at 9am, before teams get into their different sports events. Twenty six teams are in football, divided into four pools, while volleyball will have 16 teams, with four teams in each pool. There are five teams in sevens rugby and five teams also in touch rugby, with both sports to have round-robin competition. Eastpack won the rugby 7s and Volleyball in 2024 while Trinity Lands won the football title.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Boxing: NZ fighters to undergo gender tests ahead of World Champs
Boxing gold medallist Algeria's Imane Khelif poses on the podium Photo: MOHD RASFAN / AFP World Boxing will introduce mandatory testing to determine the eligibility of male and female athletes in time for next month's World Championships. The testing will be in place for all of World Boxing's competitions. National teams will be required to provide chromosomal certification or face sanctions under the new policy. It would mean Paris Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif of Algeria would be unable to compete until she underwent a test. A New Zealand team of seven is currently in Britain preparing for the World Championships but have not undergone the tests yet. In a statement World Boxing said: "The policy is designed to ensure the safety of all participants and deliver a competitive level playing field for men and women and means that all athletes over the age of 18 that want to participate in a World Boxing owned or sanctioned competition will need to undergo a once-in-a-lifetime PCR (polymerase chain reaction) of functional medical equivalent genetic screening test to determine their sex at birth and their eligibility to compete." It means that all athletes who wish to take part in the 10 female weight categories at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool will need to undergo a PCR or functional medical equivalent genetic screening test to certify their eligibility to box. World Boxing's policy on 'sex eligibility' has been crafted by a working group of its medical and antidoping committee which examined medical evidence from a range of sources and spent nearly 12 months consulting with experts and studying legal, societal and sporting developments relating to the issue of eligibility by sex. Under the policy, World Boxing will operate two categories as determined by sex: a men's category and a women's category. To be eligible for the men's category, a competitor must be male at birth. To be eligible for the women's category, a competitor must be female at birth, the statement said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
