Canty’s sporting heroes triumph

Press, 22 November 1989, Page 1

Canty’s sporting heroes triumph

By

KEVIN TUTTY

Richard Hadlee and Erin Baker, Canterbury’s favourite sporting son and daughter, scooped the four main awards at the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year dinner in Auckland last evening.

Making the evening a supreme one for Canterbury, Hadlee won the special Sportsman of the Decade award, and the Sportsman of the Year award, and Baker won the Sportswoman of the Year award and the over-all Sportsperson of the Year award. Netball’s outstanding season brought rewards for that sport. Lynn Parker, in her first year as the national netball coach, was the Administrator-Coach of the Year, and the netball team was the Team of the Year. The other award, the Personality of the Year, was won by Peter Blake, the skipper of Steinlager II on the Whitbread Round-the-World race.

Hadlee won the Sportsman of the Decade trophy ahead of several other outstanding individuals and teams, including Mark Todd, Susan Devoy, the All Blacks and lan Ferguson. To win the Sportsman of the Year award he had to overcome the deeds of Bob Charles, Chris Dickson and Mark Todd. Hadlee’s greatest feat in the last year was breaking the world record for the most wickets in test matches. He broke the record in India last year, and is now only four wickets short of being the first bowler in test cricket history to take 400 wickets.

Hadlee, who recently had surgery on a ruptured achilles tendon, hobbled on crutches to the stage to accept the awards.

After accepting the Sportsman Of the Decade trophy, he said that two of the highlights in that time had been taking nine wickets in an innings against Australia in a test match in Brisbane in 1985 and achieving the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in a season for Nottinghamshire in the English county championship in 1984. Baker’s successes were finally acceptance of her remarkable ability. In the 12 months covering the award — October 1, .1988 to September 30, 1989 - Baker has

performed some outstanding feats.

She has confirmed herself as the top woman triathlete in the world. In the 1989 northern hemisphere season she was unbeaten in 10 triathlons and two biathlons.

Baker was not satisfied she was earning sufficient recognition of her ability, and decided to show New Zealanders how talented she was as a pure athlete. She ran her first competitive marathon in May in Pittsburgh, and finished third in 2hr 36min 58s. In a 10km road race in lowa she beat a top class field, and beat by a remarkable 55s the race record held by Joan Benoit, the winner of the Los Angeles Olympic marathon in 1984. She won both awards ahead of some talented athletes. Jan Higgins, the Australian golf champion, tennis player Belinda Cordwell and Susan Devoy, who won the British Open squash title for the fifth consecutive year this year, were the other nominations for the individuals award. Hadlee, Parker and the New Zealand netball team were the other nominations for the overall Sportsperson of the Year award.

It was Parker’s first year as the national netball coach and she went through the season with an unbeaten record. New Zealand won the World Games title in Karlsruhe, West Germany, and beat Australia convincingly, in a three-test series in New Zealand. The netball team was selected ahead of the Auckland rugby team, the All Blacks, and the women’s road relay team which won an international event in Japan. t „ The success of the netball team, Baker and Parker, is an indication that at least New Zealand sports journalists, whose votes decide the awards, are recognising the outstanding efforts of New Zealand’s leading sportswomen. Picture, page 9