![]() Oscar Guo is the best badminton player in New Zealand and he is only Year 12 at Westlake Boys’ High School. In 2015 Guo comfortably defeated Brock Matheson 21-17, 21-14 to become the youngest ever New Zealand player to win a national singles senior title. Guo successfully defended the National title in 2016 and has just added a second Oceania Junior (U19) title to his impressive résumé. A fearless playing style and a growing appetite for travel have driven Guo to great heights. “I like to play an attacking style of Badminton, hit the shuttlecock close to the lines and take risks. Because I am young I have nothing to lose,” Guo reveals. In New Caledonia at the Oceania champs Guo claimed both the singles and doubles crowns and in the former event didn’t drop a set. “I prepared really well for the tournament. The hardest thing was the heat, but in training I forced myself to carry on when I was completely fatigued so that helped improve my endurance,” Guo says. Guo didn’t require long on court, accept for the final where he met familiar rival Edward Lau. “We have played each other so many times I have lost count. He is a really good player, but I feel I took more risks and played a good match against him” Guo enthuses. Badminton runs in the Guo family. Both his parents played socially and Guo first picked up a racquet when he was two years old and started competitive play when he was 8. Guo’s biggest win thus far is capturing the Australian Under-17 title in 2014. It was his first major success on the international stage where he desires further action. After attempting to defend his National senior title, Guo will travel to Indonesia for an international Grand-Prix and return again for the Junior World Championships with his sights set on qualifying for the Junior Olympics. Guo, who plays out of the North Harbour badminton club, identifies Daniel Shirley the only Kiwi to medal at the World Championships as his favourite player. Shirley, like Guo, is a risk taker. Oceania Championship Singles Results Beat: Marcus Loi, 21-8, 21-12 Beat: Vong, 21-9, 21-8 Beat: Clement Cazautet, 21-2, 21-7 Beat: Quentin Bernaix, 21-11, 21-9 Beat: Edward Lau, 21-15, 21-9 Below are some selected Photos of the Week, highlighting some of the secondary school sporting events and achievements over the past seven days and others that have been in the news. Want to contribute to College Sport Media’s Photos of the Week? We’d love to hear from you and publish your photos. Drop us a message on https://www.facebook.com/collegesportmedia or email us at [email protected] Note: If photos are not taken or by you we need to know their source so we can credit the photographer that took them or the publication where they were first posted. Tall vs short at Palmerston North BHS. Year 9 student Carlo Finlayson looks up to the school’s tallest student and Year 13 Premier A Basketballer Callum McRae. Photo credit PNBHS Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PalmyBoys/photos/a.503103126372515.136240.334596109889885/1616615671687916/?type=3&theater Kristin School’s Olivia McTaggart clears 4.00 metres in the Women’s Pole Vault at the Auckland Track Challenge at the AUT Millennium track yesterday. Competing with other international pole vaulters, most notably her training partner Eliza McCartney who won with with 4.82m which broke the Oceania record, Olivia jumped 4.30m. The Auckland Championships are this coming week, followed by the National Championships in Hamilton in three weeks. Photo credit: Athletics NZ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ9gspEDzSK/ The Bream Bay College rugby league team last week after their narrow first round loss to Dargaville High School in the Northland Secondary Schools Rugby League Adam Blair Trophy. Dargaville HS won 36-32. In other results, newcomers Otamatea High School drew 12-12 with Whangarei BHS and Kamo High School defeated Tikipunga HS HS 40-10. Photo credit: Northern Swords Rugby League: https://www.facebook.com/NorthernSwords/ The Southland Boys’ High School softball team recently won the Southland Secondary Schools Softball with a thrilling win in the final over James Hargest College that went into a tie break. Photo credit: Southland Secondary School Sports: https://www.facebook.com/Southland-Secondary-Schools-Sports-147749331986956/?hc_ref=SEARCH New Zealand U17 football representatives Ash Emery and Ally Toailoa with the Papatoetoe South School year 5/6s last week at FIFA Live Your Goals school festival event. Photo credit: Auckland Football Twitter @AuckFootballFed Sammie Maxwell from Tauhara College in Taupo on her way to winning the U17 Girls cross country race at this past weekend’s New Zealand Mountain Bike Championships in Cardrona. Other age-group girls winners were Emma Lord from the Bay of Plenty in the U15 race and Jess Manchester from Howick College in the U19 race. The boys U19 race was won by Eden Cruise of St Pat Pat’s Town, Wellington, the boys U17 by Max Taylor and the boys U15 by Adam Francis, both of Palmerston North Boys’ High School. Photo Credit Barking Cat Photography, and check out Sammy’s Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/sammiemaxwellMTB/?hc_location=ufi ![]() For most year 12s, crossing the South Island in a little over 12 hours would qualify them for a well-earned breather. Not Cameron Jones. Two days after winning the individual two-day race in last week's Coast to Coast the Waimea College multisporter was back into action. "The Coast to Coast race finished on Saturday, I recovered on Sunday, on Monday I had a short orienteering race around Waimea College and on Tuesday and Wednesday I was mountain biking," he told College Sport Media. This coming weekend he enters a different race. "This Saturday is the Mountain Bike National Championships at Cardrona in Wanaka and I'm in the U19 race this year. It's going to be a big field and really competitive, there's some fast guys in there." Last year he won the U17s race at the same event. In winning his division of the Coast to Coast last week, Cameron became the youngest winner of the individual two-day race in its 34-year history. He won by almost 40 minutes in 12hr 19min 5sec. The second placed finisher was 16-year-old Oliver Thompson of Trident High School in Whakatane. Cameron said he was confident of doing well ahead of the race, which saw competitors cross the 243km width of the South Island. "I put in quite a bit of work leading up to the race, and had been putting in some good times leading up to it, looking at previous results. It is really who turns up on the day, you can control what time you do but you can't control the pace if there's someone faster. I was secretly hoping to win." His competitors were largely an unknown to him as well. "The guy who was second after the first day I hadn’t heard of. Oliver, who finished second, is the same age as me. I was keeping an eye on him; I knew he was a good paddler. Cameron talked through his Coast to Coast win. "For the first 55km ride I got into the front bunch of team cyclists. The pace was quite high and I ended up holding a 10 minute lead. I went into the [30km] run not feeling as fresh as I would have liked but I got through the run in the time I was hoping to get, 3hr 35min, and I held that 10 minute lead. The second day involved running, cycling and kayaking to the finish line at New Brighton Pier in Christchurch. "Day two was a short ride to the kayak transition.”I had a few issues in the kayak and had to get out a couple of times to walk. There was a group of the top five individuals all heading into the gorge, about an hour into the paddle. Then Oliver and I pulled away and got out of our kayaks together. Then on to the last ride I pulled away from him and also finished third or fourth including all the team competitors." This was Cameron's second Coast to Coast, having been in Waimea College's winning three-person team last year. In December 2015 he was part of Waimea College's junior adventure racing team that won the national Get2Go challenge series final. He said he's been involved in multisport for a few years now. "My background's mountain biking and I started doing local duathlons. I starting kayaking in year seven and started to paddle a tippy boat and worked my way up that way." His Coast to Coast coach Trevor Voyce put him on a 10-week training plan over the summer. His training program had him doing an average of 17 hours per week. Cameron says after this weekend he'll most likely be competing in some upcoming local races. "It all depends on how I go this weekend; I'd like to earn selection for the mountain bike world champs in Cairns in Australia later in the year." Then there's also school cross country and athletics and then moving into winter there's a few multisport races he's interested in such as the Crazyman and 3D events. "If I go to them I won't have done as much kayaking and running if I go hard for the mountain bike world champs though." Cameron is also starting NCEA Level 2, with maths and science his favourite subjects. If his multisport and mountain biking career continues apace he'll soon be counting his sporting achievements. Below are some selected Photos of the Week, highlighting some of the secondary school sporting events and achievements over the past seven days and others that have been in the news. Want to contribute to College Sport Media’s Photos of the Week? We’d love to hear from you and publish your photos. Drop us a message on https://www.facebook.com/collegesportmedia or email us at [email protected] Note: If photos are not taken or by you we need to know their source so we can credit the photographer that took them or the publication where they were first posted. 1. Students from Auckland Diocesan School for Girls and Westlake Boys’ High School attended last week’s annual New Zealand Sport 54th Halberg Awards. The four Dio students, Sports Prefect, Kate Haines; Sports Deputies, Nina Foley and Greta van den Brink; and Head Girl, Luci Trethewey got the opportunity to rub shoulders with New Zealand's sporting elite. Lisa Carrington, who was the guest speaker at Dio’s Senior Sports Awards last year, won the Supreme Halberg Award. Photo credit: Diocesan School Sport at https://www.facebook.com/diocesanschoolsport/photos/pcb.1308778595850185/1308772305850814/?type=3&theater 2. Ashburton College sculler Veronica Wall had another fantastic regatta last week, winning both the Senior Women's and U20 single sculls at the 2017 New Zealand Rowing Championships in Twizel. Last year Veronica became the first girl to win three singles titles at U16, U17 and U18 level at the Maadi Cup. This year’s Maadi Cup is coming up on Lake Karapiro at the end of March. Photo credit: Rowing New Zealand/Rowing Celebration. View more of their superb shots in their galleries at https://www.facebook.com/rowingnewzealand 3. Dylan Brockett, out of Hamilton Boys’ High School scores to put Waikato ahead 8-3 in the final of the U18 Boys Grassroots Trust 2017 Junior National touch championships last weekend. Waikato went on to beat Auckland 9-4 in the final. New Zealand’s leading secondary school touch players were in one of the 76 teams that took part in the championships at Bruce Pulman Park. Other winners were: Counties Manukau (U16 Girls and U16 Boys), Wellington (U16 Mixed), Waikato (U18 Girls) and Southland (U18 Mixed).Photo credit: Touch NZ, for more photos view: https://www.facebook.com/touchnz/ 4. The St Mary’s College Condor 7s team and the selection in the New Zealand Development squad of Lyric Faleafaga were celebrated in a special assembly at the school last Tuesday afternoon. Here the team outside with College Sport Wellington Director John Hornal and leading sports administrator and old girl Dame Therese Walshe. Next up for the St Mary’s College 7s side is the Sir Gordon Tietjens tournament in Palmerston North on 3 and 4 March, then a hopeful trip to the Sanix tournament in Japan in April. Photo credit: St Mary’s College/supplied. 5. Northcote College’s Jake Tucker won the AFL New Zealand Rising star award for round 1 of the 2017 Premiership. Jake Tucker made an impressive debut in his first AFLNZ Premiership game where he ran out for the Central Giants last Sunday. The Northcote College student was a shining light for the Giants in their defeat to the Saints. Photo credit and to read more about him and AFL NZ’s Q and A with him at http://aflnz.co.nz/blog/2017/02/16/tucker-makes-giant-debut-to-win-round-1-rising-star/ 6. AFF Futsal representative Emily Gillion is one of a number of players who have seen the Women’s Futsal pathway come to fruition. The 16-year old Macleans College student took up the five aside game less than a year ago, and already finds herself coming up against the best female talent the country has to offer. Emily has earned selection into the Auckland National Women’s Futsal League side for this coming weekend’s National Women’s Futsal League takes in Wellington, with AFF Futsal being drawn with Mainland, Central Futsal Hawkes Bay and Northern in pool B. Photo credit Phototek and read the rest of the story at the AFF website: http://www.aucklandfootball.org.nz/gillion-progresses-through-pathway/
Below are some selected Photos of the Week, highlighting some of the secondary school sporting events and achievements over the past seven days and others that have been in the news. Want to contribute to College Sport Media’s Photos of the Week? We’d love to hear from you and publish your photos. Drop us a message on https://www.facebook.com/collegesportmedia or email us at [email protected] Note: If photos are not taken or by you we need to know their source so we can credit the photographer that took them or the publication where they were first posted. 1. Waimea College’s Cameron Jones wins two-day Coast to Coast race: 16-year-old Waimea College multisport athlete Cameron Jones here crossing the line at Klondyke Corner on Friday after day one of this year’s Coast to Coast two-day race. Yesterday Cameron protected his lead to win the individual two-day race by almost 40 minutes in 12hr 19min 5sec. The second placed finisher was 16-year-old Oliver Thompson of Trident High School. Cameron is the youngest winner of the race in its 34-year history. Last year’s NZ cross country U17 Mountain Biking champion Cameron won free entry to the event at last year’s 3D Rotorua Multisport Festival. Previously, he led Waimea College’s junior adventure racing team that won the national Get2Go secondary schools crown in December 2015 and was third in the school’s three person teams category in last year’s Coast to Coast. Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/CoasttoCoastNZ/ 2. Wakatipu High School ski racers Alice Robinson and Alex Hull have qualified for the USSA U16 Western Regional Skiing Championships at Big Sky Montana in March with outstanding results in the USSA U16 Western Region Qualifiers. In fields of 80 Alice won five of the qualifying races. Last year Alice Wakatipu High School student won the US U16 Giant Slalom title and was second in the Super-G last April, while Alex who is back home in NZ nursing a hand injury, is a former NZ U16 champion. Photo credit and read more at: https://www.snowsports.co.nz/ 3. The crowd had come to see New Zealand's greatest golfer but a 15-year-old local stole the show at the Kaiapoi Golf Club. Sir Bob Charles went to the North Canterbury club for a round of golf with some of the club's up and coming juniors on Sunday. Playing in the shadow of the golfing legend, Mitchell Berry nailed a hole-in-one on the first hole. Photo credit and read more here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/golf/89141435/teenage-golfer-shows-up-sir-bob-charles-with-an-ace 4. A young basketballer is dribbling her way to success only a year after getting into the sport. D'Jonaye Nui-Hinga, 14, also known as 'Smiley', has made her family and region proud after working her way up to playing at an international level. Hawera-based Nui-Hinga has an all-round 'sporty' background but said she had only just found her love for basketball. "They call me Smiley because even when I'm dribbling or shooting, anything, I'm just always smiling," Nui-hinga laughed. The 14-year-old has just got back from the New Zealand Maori Basketball Tournament in Rotorua where her under-15 girls' team received the bronze medal. Photo credit and read more here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/south-taranaki-star/89035479/hawera-basketball-teen-shoots-high 5. Hutt International Boys’ School opening batsmen Adam Webster and all-rounder Jesse Tashkoff put on 114 for the third wicket against St Pat’s Town on Saturday in Wellington Premier First XI cricket, a match-winning partnership. Webster made his highest score for the HIBS 1st XI of 88 in his 50th match for the team, while Tashkoff scored 59. HIBS posted 214-6 off 50 overs. Tashkoff then went on to take figures of 3 for 24 and captain Caleb Hewson took 4 for 41 as HIBS bowled out St Pat’s for 162. HIBS won by 52 runs and remain unbeaten two rounds into the competition. Photo credit Wareham Sports Media and to view the full gallery visit: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Wareham-Sports-Media-922231524463851/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1481840945169570
Below are some selected Photos of the Week, highlighting some of the secondary school sporting events and achievements over the past seven days and others that have been in the news. Want to contribute to College Sport Media’s Photos of the Week? We’d love to hear from you and publish your photos. Drop us a message on https://www.facebook.com/collegesportmedia or email us at [email protected] Note: If photos are not taken or by you we need to know their source so we can credit the photographer that took them or the publication where they were first posted. 1. Main beach on Mount Maunganui became tournament HQ this Waitangi weekend for the 2017 New Zealand Secondary Schools Beach Volleyball Championships. 140 teams across four divisions competed on 30 courts. Libby Houghton and Hikarau Han of Spotswood College won the Senior Girls Division 1, defeating Katie Sadlier and Zara Pocock of Westlake GHS 2-0 in their final. Tyran Gillespie and Billy Johnstone of Western Heights High School retained their Senior One Boys Division 1 title, beating the Rangitoto College pair Ryan Gunn and Sam Anderson 2-1 in their final. The Junior Division 1 boys title was won by Antony Joe and Mel Naborisi, also of Spotswood College, and the Junior Division 2 girls title was won by Tamara Otene and Juliet Vukets of Westlake GHS. Results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dvp-51sdujhcL-KN0mtCOPd0d2SIlPtd_zDsbApQcZs/edit Photo credit Julie Marie Photography and for more photos: https://www.facebook.com/volleyballnz/ 2. Francis Douglas Memorial College students Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens and Mairenga Laapo recently represened Fiji in the inaugural Pasifika Youth Rugby League Cup held in Auckland. Both Laapo, a utility player, and Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens, a half, had strong showings in the tournament, each finding their way across the stripe, with Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens slotting the most conversions and finding himself in the tournament team at the end of the week. The 15-year-olds both started playing the game around the age of seven but had only got back into it after a short break over the past two years and we part of the year 9 and 10 team who won the Jack Knucky trophy for the first time with a 38-0 win over New Plymouth Boys' High School. This year, they were set to line up in Francis Douglas' first 13 this year, with the school looking to qualify for their fourth trip to the national secondary schools tournament. Read more at http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/sport/89007015/francis-douglas-memorial-college-duo-represent-fiji-in-rugby-league and photo credit to Grant Matthew/Fairfax NZ. 3. Year 13 Mt Aspiring College year student and Wanaka snowsports athlete Louis Jones spent his school holidays training and racing in Italy and Slovakia with the Australian biathlon team. This season, he finished 36th in an Alpen Cup race in Italy and was selected to represent New Zealand at the IBU Youth/Junior World Championships in Osrblie, Slovakia in late February. He also competed in Junior International Biathlon Union (IBU) cup races. Jones is following in the tracks of biathlon pioneer Sarah Murphy, the first and only New Zealand biathlete to compete at the Winter Olympics. Jones is one of just two New Zealand cross country skiers presently competing internationally. The other is fellow Mount Aspiring College student, Campbell Wright. Read more here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/88626124/louis-jones-carves-lonely-tracks-to-biathlon-world-championships 4. Twin brothers Ethan and Quinn Childs both made their debuts for the Wairarapa senior men’s cricket team in the last of their 2016-17 Hawke Cup qualifying round matches against Hawke’s Bay at Ongaonga last weekend. The 16-year-olds who have been prominent members of the Rathkeale College first XI over the past couple of seasons will be following in the footsteps of their father Mark Childs, who himself had a long stint in the Wairarapa side, starting in the early 1990’s. Quinn Childs also played for Central Districts at the national under-17 tournament in Christchurch in January. Photo credit and read more here: http://times-age.co.nz/childs-twins-make-wairarapa-debut/ 5. Hot on the heels of Vili Koroi (Feilding High School) last weekend, 2016 school-leaver Alena Saili (Southland Girls’ High School) made her senior international rugby debut. Alena donned the Black Ferns jersey for the first time in Sydney, helping New Zealand to third place in the World Rugby women’s tournament.
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March 2022
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OrganisationCollege Sport Media is dedicated to telling the story of successful young sportspeople in New Zealand
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