The awards are run by the New Zealand Rural Games Trust. Held at Awapuni in Palmerston North on Friday, March 9, they are New Zealand’s premier celebration of rural sports athletes.
There are five prestigious award categories:
- The Norwood New Zealand Rural Sportsman of the Year
- The Skellerup New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year
- The Fonterra Young New Zealand Rural Sportsperson of the Year
- The Federated Farmers Contribution to the New Zealand Rural Sports Industry
- The Toyota Lifetime Legacy Award.
Trust chair Margaret Kouvelis said the awards are designed to raise the profile of traditional sports like wood chopping, shearing, tree climbing and sheepdog trials and also recognise the important role such sports play in New Zealand society.
“Our top rural sportspeople are among the best athletes in New Zealand,” Kouvelis said. “Last year the inaugural winner of the Rural Sportsman of the Year, Rowland Smith, went on to break a world shearing record in England.
“We aim to showcase their talent, dedication and success at competing on the world stage in their chosen rural sporting discipline,” she said.
Rural sports associations are invited to nominate athletes for the awards.
Nominees will be shortlisted by a judging panel chaired by former All Black captain and World Cup winning coach, Sir Brian Lochore, who is also a founding board member of the New Zealand Rural Games Trust.
The other judges are rural sports icon and president of Shearing Sports New Zealand Sir David Fagan, Olympic equestrian medallist Judy ‘Tinks’ Pottinger, MP for Taranaki-King Country Barbara Kuriger, founder and trustee of the Hilux New Zealand Rural Games Steve Hollander and respected agricultural journalists Craig ‘Wiggy’ Wiggins, Tony Leggett and Jamie Mackay, who will also MC the event.
The awards dinner will held on Friday, March 9 at Awapuni in Palmerston North, the night before the Hilux New Zealand Rural Games in Palmerston North where nominees and winners will be competing.
