Westpac Halberg Awards Confirmed For Christchurch

2007 Westpac Halberg Awards Confirmed For Christchurch Next February

Auckland, 29 August 2007: New Zealand’s premier sporting showcase, the Westpac Halberg Awards are returning to Christchurch next year after an absence of four years.

The Halberg Trust has confirmed that the 2007 awards dinner will be held at the Christchurch Convention Centre on Tuesday February 12, 2008.

It was back in 2004 when the Silver Ferns completed a clean sweep of the categories on the back of their 2003 World Championship success. Ruth Aitken was voted ‘Coach of the Year’, the Silver ferns won the ‘Team of the Year’ category, Irene van Dyk was named ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ and just for good measure the Silver Ferns, who edged out Australia 49-47 in the final of the 2003 Netball World Championships won the supreme Halberg Award.

There is a chance of history repeating itself next February at the 2007 Westpac Halberg Awards with Netball New Zealand playing host to the 2007 Netball World Championships in Auckland this November.

Each year since 1963 the Halberg Trust has hosted what has become a sell-out glittering black-tie awards dinner where New Zealand’s outstanding sporting achievers of the previous 12 months are saluted. Chief Executive Graeme Taylor is confident the 45th presentation of the Halberg Awards will be no exception.

”The achievement by Valerie Vili who produced a big final effort to win the gold medal in the women’s shot put at the World Track and Field Championships earlier this week was quite outstanding,” he says.

“It will have done much to stimulate interest in the Westpac Halberg Awards next February. And if the All Blacks and Silver Ferns emerge triumphant at the Rugby World Cup and Netball World Championships, what a headache for the Halberg Voting Academy that will be.”

The Halberg Trust has again partnered with TVNZ to present the 2007 Westpac Halberg Awards and Mr Taylor says viewers can look forward to “what will be a new and exciting total sports and entertainment package.”

Meanwhile the Halberg Trust has organised a series of Westpac Halberg Celebrity Sporting Functions as a build-up to the big Awards. Sydney Olympic single scull gold medallist Rob Waddell is speaking in Christchurch (September 7), Napier (September 8) and Wellington (November 2), Caroline and Georgina Evers Swindell at Dunedin (October 5), recent World Women’s shot put champion Valerie Vili at Nelson (October 12), Invercargill (October 18) and Queenstown (October 19), Kiwi motor racing ace Jonny Reid at Tauranga (October 26) and 2006 Halberg Award winner Mahe Drysdale at New Plymouth (October 10).

Tickets to the 2007 Westpac Halberg Awards dinner in Christchurch next February are available by contacting the Halberg Trust at office@halberg.co.nz.

ENDS

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