The Halberg winners

February 15th, 2013 at 12:00 pm by David Farrar

Simon Plumb at Stuff reports the Halberg winners:

Halberg Supreme Awards – Hamish Bond and Eric Murray
Sports Team - Hamish Bond and Eric Murray
Sportsman – Mahe Drsdale
Sportswoman – Valerie Adams
Disabled – Sophie Pascoe
Coach – Richard Tonks
Emerging Talent – Lydia Ko

The only one I would really dispute is the sportswoman award. I think Lydia Ko and Lisa Carrington were both higher up the achievement stakes – and Ko higher than Carrington. I would have had Adams third – and no disrespect to her – just a measure of the many great results in 2012.

Tags: Halberg Awards

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2013 at 12:00 pm and is filed under New Zealand, Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

20 Responses to “The Halberg winners”

Longknives (2,480) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:05 pm
I’m struggling to grasp how Val Adams won…
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sparky (153) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:08 pm
The only one I would really dispute is the sportswoman award.

I agree with you David. The only one I would dispute is Valerie Adams. Lydia Lisa and Sophie Pascoe, I would of put ahead of Ms Adams.
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tropicana (79) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:27 pm
My struggle with the same thing includes the singular nature of the sport. I can’t help thinking as well, that Adams won because of the gold medal adversity. The circumstances of the wining of the medal, don’t in the slightest, enhance the merits of Adams’ achievements. Sad for the others really. All that said, congrats to all of them. Like if te gold controversy had occurred in the kayak, does that mean so would have gone our Halberg award?

Hah, any of us should have come even close to any of them. Esp the renowned picture of sporting magnificence, DPF (who hasn’t actually congratulated the winners where he normally would I dare say).
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Dean Papa (397) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:35 pm
Adams won because she defended her Olympic title. Carrington won in a new sport, a sport we only showed interest in because of Kiwi success (although it could be argued that applies to many other sports e.g. Equestrian). You can make an argument for Ko based on age, but not purely on achievement. I’d say the judges got it about right.
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Yogibear (47) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:37 pm
Geez – questioning Adams’ award kinda sums up everything that is wrong with NZ sport. Shes Olympic and World Champion and has dominated IAAF events throughout the year.

Pascoe is neither, but supremely talented.

Ko may be the best female golfer in the world and have massive potential but her palmares for the year are not world-class.

Carrington is the only one that comes close being an Olympic and world champion. Fabulous, “come from nowhere” performances that astonished the kayak world………..
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flipper (1,646) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:44 pm
But DPF,
the “Sportsman of the Year” Awards (aka Halbergs) was always a Track and Field/Olympic/Comm Games benefit – even in the days of “shamateurism”.

How they (T&F) pinched the original award ftom all sports is another fascinating story, and the result if Track and Field plotting. The Halbergs have always been skewed toward the self perpetuating Olympic oligarchy’s four yearly event, and track and field in particular.

On a world wide athlete participation basis, Ko by a country mile (not 1500m ).
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ross69 (2,379) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:49 pm
Shes Olympic and World Champion and has dominated IAAF events throughout the year.

Yeah she is but then how many women shot putters are there? It’s no surprise she dominates IAAF events when the numbers are small.

Pascoe is neither, but supremely talented.

Actually, Pascoe is also a world and Olympic champion. Her achievements (c/o Wikipedia) are:

2012: Three gold medals (100m freestyle-S10, 100m butterfly-S10, 200m individual medley-SM10); three silver medals (50m freestyle-S10, 100m backstroke-S10, 100m breaststroke-SB9) – International Paralympic Committee (IPC) – Paralympic Games, London, United Kingdom;
2010: Gold medal (100m butterfly-S10); three silver medals (50m freestyle-S10, 100m backstroke-S10, 200m individual medley-SM10); bronze medal (100m breaststroke-SB9) – IPC World Championships, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2009: Four gold medals (100 m backstroke-S10, 100 m butterfly-S10, 100 m individual medley-SM10, 200 m individual medley-SM10); three bronze medals (100 m freestyle-S10, 400 m freestyle-S10, 100 m breaststroke-SB9) – IPC World Championships – 25 m, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2008: Three gold medals (100 m backstroke-S10, 100 m breaststroke-SB9, 200 m individual medley-SM10); Silver (100 m butterfly-S10) – International Paralympic Committee (IPC) – Paralympic Games, Beijing, China
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ross69 (2,379) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:53 pm
The Halbergs have always been skewed toward the self perpetuating Olympic oligarchy’s four yearly event, and track and field in particular.

I agree with the first part but not the second. Look at this year’s winners. Only Val Adams does track and field. The other winners don’t compete in T&F. In fact, NZ is weak when it comes to T&F.
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dime (6,215) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 1:00 pm
she throws a rock FFS!!!

now, if she had to run, throw, jump and catch them maybe she would be worthy of a sports award.
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gump (657) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 1:19 pm
The Halbergs are simply a popularity contest.

I like to think that if I ever got nominated, I would gracefully decline to attend.
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Yogibear (47) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 1:20 pm
Ross 69 – Not to get hung up on semantics or anything. but there is only one Olympic Games. There is a Paralympic games which Pacoe won medals in, but she is Paralymic chamipon, not Olympic Champion.

Secondly there is a clear difference between an All Commers world championship and one which is defined by age (U23, Masters) or impariment.

To me – THE world champion is the best person in the world at the highest level in their sport as determined by that discipline’s governing body, which with the exception of equestrian events and a couple of others is split on gender and nothing else.

Pascoe is a International Paralympic Committee World Champion, but FINA governs swimming. She is clearly not the FINA-sanctioned world champion in ANY event she competes in.

But like I said – supremely talented
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RAS (39) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 2:22 pm
I agree that Carrington should have won, but not Ko. Golf is not a sport.
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Parlyguy (17) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 2:39 pm
I support Dean Papa’s comments, she successfully defended her olympic gold medal, the highest level of competition.

To the person who commented on the number of competitors in shot put the number is actually quite large. The number of elite competitors is obviously much smaller, but that in no way diminishes Valerie’s acheivements, in fact one could argue that it enhances it.
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Small Forest (2) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 7:13 pm
When the award was first started in 1949 it was about the performance or example that did the most for the advancement of sport in NZ. To me it’s about diminishing returns, not about whether a gold medal in shot put is superior to a gold medal in kyaking. An award to Lisa Carrington will do more to inspire NZ than giving it to Valerie Adams again.
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Steve (North Shore) (3,644) Says:
February 15th, 2013 at 7:56 pm
I will go with dime, the awards are strangley centered on recent heroes

she throws a rock FFS!!!

now, if she had to run, throw, jump and catch them maybe she would be worthy of a sports award.

set her up with a fight against sonny girl williams
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Franca Marije (3) Says:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:17 am
It always seems to be the same people winning every year. Gets boring, yeah?
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duggie (5) Says:
February 16th, 2013 at 1:44 am
These awards showed we have an embarrasment of riches when it comes to world class female athletes, so instead of quibbling lets just be thankful.
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ross69 (2,379) Says:
February 16th, 2013 at 7:23 am
The inclusion of disabled awards has been criticised as tokenism, and I tend to agree. If Pascoe had won 10 gold medals, she probably wouldn’t have won the supreme award.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10865747
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ross69 (2,379) Says:
February 16th, 2013 at 7:26 am
I support Dean Papa’s comments, she successfully defended her olympic gold medal, the highest level of competition.

So did Pascoe. The difference is that Pascoe won 3 golds at successive Paralympics, 6 in total. Obviously that’s not considered sufficient. I wonder what would be sufficient…
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ross69 (2,379) Says:
February 16th, 2013 at 7:34 am
Regarding the criteria, the Voting Academy consider:

1.Regarding the achievement:
a.was it in that sport’s ‘pinnacle event’ (eg Olympics, Paralympics, Football World Cup)
b.was it a world record, or world ranking or recognition (eg ‘World Player of the Year’).
c.the quality of the field / competition.

2.The global nature of the sport.

At the the last paralympics, Pascoe smashed a world record…Val Adams failed to reach her personal best in London. It seems the Halberg judges didn’t follow their own criteria.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1208/S00551/sophie-pascoe-beats-world-record-twice-wins-gold.htm
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