It’s not easy being a parent in sport.
From applying a plaster to a bloodied knee to “the Bank of Mum and Dad” funding an Olympic Games dream, parents of sports-loving children board the emotional rollercoaster pretty much the day their young one first kicks a football, catches a cricket ball, completes the width of a swimming pool or does their first forward roll.
Granted, watching from the stand of an Olympic stadium as a now elite athlete child lines up against the best on the planet carries a little more weight of pressure than standing on the side of the football field on a wintry morning as mobs of children tear up and down the ground.
But it’s all part of the same process - a formula comprising support, love, duty and nowadays a need to get them away from the screen and sucking in oxygen at real-world locations where Fortnite and Minecraft do not exist.
Sport has been part of Gisborne’s DNA forever. It has almost become a case of you name it, you can play it here. This may be seen by many as a watersport town, but organisations like Gisborne Speedway Club - who hold massively supported meetings every summer - might beg to differ. We play it all.
And over the decades, that sporting passion has produced a stream of champions - local, national and world. When the aliens come, Gisborne is likely to add inter-galatic to that.
Last year was no different on the success front and leading the way, as they did in 2023, were women.
Top of the list was Alicia Hoskin - a double gold medal-winning flatwater canoeist at the Paris Olympic Games.
Hoskin is now based in Auckland but you can’t take the Gisborne out of the girl. This was the place where she picked up a paddle for the first time, where she learned her craft as a member of Poverty Bay Kayak Club, where she perfected it by powering relentlessly up and down the Waimata River - the very same river that 40 years prior helped produce 1984 Olympic sprint kayak champions Alan Thompson and Grant Bramwell.
With her biggest fans - parents Craig and Toni - cheering her on from “the sideline”, Hoskin won gold in the women’s K4 500m and the K2 500 alongside Kiwi superstar and Ngāti Porou-affiliated Dame Lisa Carrington.
Most of Gisborne watched live from thousands of kilometres away as Te Wharau, Ilminster and Gisborne Girls’ High old girl Hoskin and Carrington triumphed over the world’s best in their K2 triumph.
Joining Hoskin in the history books as the latest to join the Gisborne Olympian list were judoka Sydnee Andrews and surfer Saffi Vette. Andrews placed 17th out of 26 in her weight division; Vette, competing at Tahiti’s famous Teahupo’o break, was 17th out of 24. Both vowed to be back and on medal missions.
Kelsey Teneti - Andrews’ first cousin - missed out on the New Zealand women’s rugby sevens squad for Paris - but was brought in to help them prepare. By the end of 2024 she had cemented her place in the squad for the 2024-2025 HSBC SVNS world series, including victory in the final of the Cape Town leg.
Teenage martial artist Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai also made it to Paris to take part in the demonstration sport of Muay Thai as New Zealand’s only representative.
Surf lifesaving beach specialist Briana Irving dominated the Eastern Regional champs and the nationals, then claimed the beach sprint crown at the lifesaving world champs on the Gold Coast - part of a golden double as fellow Waikanae clubbie Oska Smith won the men’s title.
Irving’s Black Fins international teammate Olivia Corrin achieved “a dream” of making the podium at the coveted and cut-throat Nutri-Grain iron series - winning the third round in Sydney en route to third placing overall. The open women’s iron title was among her four individual gold medals at the national champs at Mt Maunganui.
Tairāwhiti born-and-raised Kaipo Olsen-Baker’s powerhouse performances over the year saw her named Black Ferns Player of the Year at the New Zealand rugby awards.
It was another successful year for waka ama but also one of heartfelt loss. Hine Brooking won the J16 Women’s V1 500m title at the IVF Va’a world elite and club sprint champs in Hawaii. Akayshia Williams underlined her status as one of the sport’s greats with her sixth premier women’s W1 title at the sprint nationals on Lake Karapiro and was second in the open women’s V1 final at the worlds. But the year was overshadowed by the sudden death of elite competitor and coach Kiwi Campbell (aged 43) just a few months after Campbell (second, master women), husband Bruce (third, master men) and son Maia (second, junior 19 men) had reached the V1 podium at the worlds.
Other highlights of the sporting year included -
Gisborne teacher Cindy Kershaw riding Kiwi Vision to victory in the amateur rider class at the prestigious Horse of the Year Show in Hastings.
John Gisby, at 70 years young, winning his 40th Surfing NZ national championships age group title 40 years after his first - “I owe Gisborne everything,” he said.
Matawai’s Catherine Mullooly smashing the women’s world record for ewes sheared over eight hours - achieving the feat at a station near Te Kuiti.
Former Gisborne Boys’ High student and Gisborne Rowing Club member Oscar Ruston earning a “Red Jacket” as part of a Waikato crew who won the Premier Coxless Quad Sculls A final at the national champs.
The second consecutive “Triple Crown” for High School Old Boys Premier club cricket team - the Doleman Cup, Walker Shield and DJ Barry Cup.
The centenary celebrations of Gisborne Thistle AFC during which Mark Pearce was made a life member.
Thistle first team striker Jimmy Somerton scoring four hat-tricks and winning the Golden Boot for his 18 goals in the Central Fed League.
Gisborne United completing their second perfect Eastern League football season on the trot - winning division 1 with 13 wins from 13 games and the Bailey Cup knockout trophy.
Tapuae winning a historic first Poverty Bay Premier men’s club rugby crown - defeating YMP 13-5 in the grand final.
Waikohu winning the Gisborne Premier netball title for the first time in 19 seasons of trying - pipping Whāngārā 57-53 in a pulsating decider.
Hukanui Brown breaking the Patutahi Golf Club course record with an 11-under 59 featuring two eagles and eight birdies.
Anaru Reedy winning six of his eight matches at No 2 in the Tairāwhiti team at the Freyberg Masters national golf interprovincial on the Otatara course in Invercargill.
Poverty Bay Kayak Club bringing home 28 gold medals from the canoe sprint nationals at Lake Karapiro - including five golds to rising star Jacqueline Kennedy, and the K1 men’s 1000m and 5km titles to Quaid Thompson.
Te Karaka farm station manager Glenn Tomlinson running the equivalent of 11 marathons in less than three days in the Backyard Ultra World Team Championship held at Otemata in the South Island.
Sixty-year-old Mike Low, after 32 years of playing squash, helping Surf City win its first ever squash national superchamps B grade men’s title in Whangārei.
Midway’s Jack Gavin being named Coach of the Year at the Surf Life Saving NZ Awards of Excellence.
The sporting and rural communities were hit hard by the death of popular rugby referee and former Poverty Bay representative Damien Macpherson - one of three Gisborne men who lost their lives at sea in a fishing boat incident in June.
“Damo”, at just 38 and with a young family, was a popular figure - as evidenced in the incredible show of support at the Damo’s Day fundraiser - and the tragic deaths of these still relatively young men emphasised how short life can be.
