Olympic gold medal success celebrated

RELEASE UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL OCTOBER 8, 2012 @ 1800

Olympic gold medal success celebrated with rowers awarded new Audi Q5s by BankLink together with Giltrap Group

Auckland, 8 October 2012: BankLink, principal partner of Rowing New Zealand, together with the Giltrap Group today presented Rowing New Zealand’s Olympic gold medallists with the keys to new Audi Q5s in recognition of their outstanding achievements at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Single sculler Mahé Drysdale, coxless pair Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, and the heavyweight double scull duo including Joseph Sullivan each received the keys to their new cars at a private ceremony hosted at the Giltrap Audi Showroom on Great North Road in Auckland. Sullivan’s crewmate, Nathan Cohen, who was unable to attend, will be presented with his car at a later date.

Richard Reese, BankLink General Manager of Operations, said; “BankLink is a long-time supporter of Rowing New Zealand and we wanted to recognise and celebrate the exceptional success of our Olympic gold medallists.

“Watching our rowers compete in London clearly showed once again the effort and dedication of these athletes. We believe it is important to formally recognise and reward their achievements at a personal level – and to hopefully provide an incentive for them to continue on to Rio 2016 and replicate their success.”

BankLink, together with Giltrap Group, has gifted the gold medal winning rowers the use of the Audis for two years or, as an incentive to stay on in the sport until the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, for four years if they continue with rowing.

Sir Colin Giltrap, Executive Chairman of Giltrap Group Holdings Limited, added; “The presentation of these Audi Q5s is an acknowledgement of the hard work and hours these rowers put into their sport every week. Our rowers have achieved some of New Zealand’s greatest sporting successes in recent years and we’re proud to be able to show our support of these amazing athletes in this way.”

CEO of Rowing New Zealand, Simon Peterson, added; “BankLink is an incredibly supportive and hands-on principle partner for Rowing New Zealand. Having a sponsor that not just provides funding to our programmes, but that goes the extra mile to support our athletes at a personal level is invaluable.

“Our rowers spend a great deal of time on the road each day travelling to training sessions and events and being able to get there in the comfort, safety and style of an Audi Q5 is something that I know will be appreciated by all of our gold medallists.”

BankLink has been a proud principal partner of Rowing New Zealand since 2006 and recently signed up to continue providing support for another four years to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. BankLink’s funding is used in a variety of ways to help develop the sport in New Zealand and provide support for the international programmes undertaken by New Zealand rowing teams.

Ends

Notes to editor:

BankLink is a unique solution that automates and streamlines the accounting process. For 25 years, BankLink has provided accounting practices with secure, timely, and accurate client transaction data from over 100 banks and financial institutions. It is used by nearly 5,000 accounting practices to streamline the accounting for approximately 300,000 of their business clients, in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. To find out more about BankLink go to www.banklink.co.nz

The Giltrap Group is a family-owned New Zealand company that encompasses retail automotive importing, distributing, wholesaling sales and services, and high-performance racing. The Giltrap Group own and operate 7 retail dealerships, representing 14 different brands from Toyota and Holden to Aston Martin and Lamborghini, and employ over 500 staff.

Starting in the early 1970s, the Giltrap Group is now widely regarded as the largest vehicle retailer in New Zealand.

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