One of the top sporting honours an athlete in New Zealand can receive is a Halberg Award and two swimmers, Gabrielle Fa ‘amusili and Sophie Pascoe both earned the award in two separate categories.
Fa’ amusili won the Emerging Talent of the Year. The 13 year old won the 50 backstroke at the World Junior Swimming Championships this summer in Dubai. In preliminaries Fa ‘amusili broke the meet record posting a 28.14 and eventually won the event in a time of 28.64.
Her time in the preliminaries tied Australian Emily Seebohm for the 15th ranked time in the world. She also broke national age group records in the long course 50 and 100 freestyle along with 50 backstroke.
In September she won her first open title at the Short Course State New Zealand Championships taking the gold in the 50 freestyle.
Sophie Pascoe was awarded with the Disabled Sportsperson of the Year Award for the third year in a row. Pascoe won the five titles at the 2013 IPC World Championships, earning victories in the 100 backstroke, 50 and 100 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and the 100 butterfly, along with breaking nine world records.
The Halberg Awards were first handed out in 1960 and named after Sir Murray Halberg. The awards are given out in a televised event. The awards assists the Halberg Disability Foundation raise money, which supports their services of providing young people with disabilities the opportunity to participate in sports.
i really appreciate all the good work that Gabrielle Fa’amausili putted in her swimming