Sporting briefs

TOUCH TRIO BAG SILVER: Three Marlborough players were part of the Tasman over-35 women’s Masters team who finished runner-up at the national touch champs in Christchurch last weekend. Natasha Ford, Katie Bradley, and Rochelle Hegglun helped the Tasman team, coached by Weesang Paaka, to the final where they put up a top effort against eventual winner Canterbury. From October, the Marlborough trio travelled regularly to Richmond for trainings, which continued after the tournament was delayed from early March to April 15-18. Tasman took out a tense semifinal against Waikato, Ford bagging the winning try, but a Canterbury side packed with former NZ reps proved too good, winning the decider 9-5. Pictured above: the Tasman Masters team.

TENNIS AWARDS: Jade Otway was again the big winner when the Marlborough Tennis Association handed out their 2020-21 awards recently. The 17-year-old picked up the junior player of the year, senior female player of the year and overall sportsperson of the year awards. During the past season she took out the NZ under-18 singles title and was named Tennis NZ’s junior female player of the year. Senior male player of the year was Oscar Sandford-Jury while Glen Cameron was named volunteer of the year. Most improved senior players were Jason Bryant and Carol Reid. Senior fair play awards went to Daniel Riordan and Trish Dahlberg. Most improved juniors were Cooper Johnson and Ella Sowman, while Dan Clarke and Jemima O’Donnell took out the junior fair play awards.

ROWERS RECOGNISED: Wairau rowers Kobe Miller and Logan Docherty have been named in the NZ under-21 squad selected after a series of trials at Lake Karapiro. Both were included in the sculling squad.

STILL GOT IT: Former Marlborough netballer and volleyballer Micah Lindsay-Brown is still proving highly competitive on the beach volleyball court. She and partner Susan Imhasly recently claimed the New Zealand beach volleyball championship, the vastly-experienced duo coming out on top after a series of events from January to March. Thirty nine-year-old Micah, a former NZ representative, is now based in New Plymouth.