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Olympic gold medalist Blair Tuke sailed away with the Supreme Award at the Konica Minolta CSG Northland Sports Awards held at the ASB Stadium in Whangarei on Friday night.
Tuke had a star studded year along with his team mate Peter Burling, which included being named the New Zealand Sailors of the Year and 2015 International Sailing Federation World Male Sailors of the Year. The 2016 49er class World Championships was another title the record breaking sailors won and in the process becoming the first sailors to win four consecutive 49er class World Championships.
Blair and Peter were co-captains of the New Zealand team at the 2016 Rio Olympics where they won gold in the 49er class with two races to spare and by an overall 43 point margin - the most dominant win of any of the sailing classes.
Earlier in the evening Tuke had won the Steinlager Pure Sportsman of the Year Award with the Sportswoman of the Year being awarded to Paralympic cyclist Emma Foy. Foy competes as a cyclist with a visual impairment and races on a tandem with cyclist and pilot Laura Thompson.
See the full story and list of winners here.
Olympic Pin Presentation
Sport Northland on behalf of the Olympic Committee was invited to present the Olympic pins and certificates to first time Olympians. New Zealand’s most successful Olympian Ian Fergusson was on hand to make the presentation on behalf of Sport Northland.
Olympian Number 1290 – Trent Jones, BMX. Trent spent his early years in Northland where he discovered BMX riding in an inter-school challenge and was hooked. He was selected in the New Zealand BMX team to compete at the 2016 Olympics where he placed 13th out of the 32 competitors.
Olympian Number 1325 -Brooke Neal, Hockey. Brooke, who plays as a defender for the Northland NHL team, was a member of the Black Sticks that competed at the 2016 Olympics where they finished fourth.
Olympic Participation Pins were then presented to Northland Olympians who competed at the Olympic Games for the second time.
Olympian number 1180, Northland hockey’s Stacey Michelsen
Olympian number 1221 Kerikeri yachtsman Blair Tuke
