World champions win at AUT sport awards
Two world champion Rugby Sevens players and a NZ touch rugby representative have taken the major awards at AUT’s annual Blues Awards. Recognising sporting excellence, the Blues awards were presented to 78 students at a formal dinner on Friday 11 October at the Sir Paul Reeves building in Auckland’s city campus.
Touch Rugby New Zealand representative, Tivoli Guthrie, won the premier award of the evening – the 2013 AUT Sports Person of the Year award. Tivoli said he was humbled and privileged to receive the award. “I appreciate it heaps. I try to give back but I also get a lot out of it myself,” he said on the night.
The Sports Person of the Year award is judged on sporting achievement, academic achievement, and community sport involvement. Winners must demonstrate excellence in all areas of sporting and academic life while contributing to the AUT sporting community.
Sport achievement and supporting AUT's sporting community
Tivoli has excelled with the New Zealand men’s Touch Rugby team while maintaining excellent grades in his third year of a Bachelor of Sport and Recreation degree. He has made significant contributions to the AUT community by captaining the AUT Touch team at the Eastern Australia University Games where the team won; he helped organise the inter-faculty touch tournament and is an AUT sport volunteer.
Rocky Khan and Tyla Nathan-Wong were both key members of New Zealand’s men’s and women’s Touch Rugby Sevens team respectively in the 2012/2013 season. Both men and women Kiwi teams took out the International Rugby Board World Series title in that season.
Of Indian-Fijian descent with family roots in Rotuma Island in Fiji, Rocky has impressed Sevens legendary coach Gordon Tietjins. He told Fairfax media that Khan could potentially be ‘huge’ in the Sevens game.
Tyla Nathan-Wong, who is currently in the first year of a Sport and Recreation degree, is a triple New Zealand representative having competed for New Zealand in Rugby Sevens, Touch Rugby, and Tag Football.
The annual AUT Blues awards are based on the Cambridge and Oxford traditional Blues awards. A Blue award is only available to current AUT students who compete at the top level in their sport during the period 1 September 2012 to 31 August 2013.
Of the major award winners and 78 Blues award winners, 11 are world champions and two are Olympians.
Finalists
Sports Person of the Year
Tivoli Guthrie New Zealand Open Men’s Touch Team (1st, Super Trans-Tasman Series
Coach: AUT Mixed Touch Team, New Zealand University Games (2nd)
Captain: AUT Premier Men’s Touch Team, Eastern Australia University Games (1st)
Inter faculty team coordinator: Sport and Recreation Touch Team, AUT Inter Faculty Touch Tournament (1st)
Cory Bennett Blacksticks World Ranking- 5th
Qualification for the 2014 World Cup
Melissa Timperley World Championship- 3rd Dan Patterns, TaeKwon-Do World Championships
Julia Trautvetter 4th Women’s Lightweight Single Scull -New Zealand University Rowing Team, Summer Universiade
1st Women’s Senior Single Scull - New Zealand Rowing Championships
1st Women’s Open Single Scull- New Zealand Rowing Championships
Female Athlete of the Year
Tyla Nathan-Wong New Zealand Women’s Rugby 7s Team (World Champion, IRB Sevens World Cup and IRB Sevens World Series) New Zealand Women’s Tag Football Team (3rd, ITFF Tag Football World Cup),New Zealand Touch Blacks Open Women’s Touch Team (2nd, Super Trans-Tasman Test Series)
Teneale Hatton World Champion- K1 5000, World Canoe Sprint Championships
Kristy Leong World Champion- Senior Female Power Breaking, TaeKwon-Do World Championships
Melissa Timperley World Champion- 3rd Dan Patterns, TaeKwon-Do World Championships
Georgia Farmer World Champion- Elite Women, CMAS Underwater Hockey World Championships
Male Athlete of the Year
Rocky Khan New Zealand Rugby 7s Team (World Champion, IRB Sevens World Series)
Cory Bennett New Zealand Blacksticks- Blacksticks World Ranking- 5th, and Qualification for the 2014 World Cup
Brent Newdick 8th Decathlon at 23rd World Athletics Championships in Moscow