Thursday 17th October

Sportsman of the Year

Sang-Yong Park

Sang-Yong won his third NZSS Table Tennis Teams title at the NZ Secondary Schools Championships, and also placed 2nd in the U19 Individual singles at this tournament. At the South Island Championships he placed 1st in U18 Boys singles, U18 Boys doubles and U18 Mixed doubles and 2nd in the Mens Open singles. Internationally he competed at the ITTF Oceania Junior Championships in Tonga, claiming Silver in the Boys Team and Bronze in Boys Doubles. In the recent ITTF-Oceania NZ Open Championships, he could only compete in two events, due to a back injury, but gained a gold medal in the U18 mixed doubles and silver in the U21 mixed doubles. He has recently been awarded the 2019 Junior Player of the Year Cup and Trophy from Table Tennis NZ. He is also a Table Tennis Coach of junior players for Table Tennis Canterbury.

Sportswoman of the Year

Ellena Firth

Ellena captained our Canterbury Secondary Schools’ champion Burnside HS Girls Football 1st XI team this year. Ellena plays for Canterbury United Pride which were National League winners and for Coastal Spirit Premier Womens, the team who were runners-up in the NZ Cup. Ellena was named in the U19 NZ Secondary Schools team, and selected for their tour to America. Ellena also plays Cricket for Burnside High and the St Albans Cricket Club and made the Canterbury U18 Girls Cricket team this year.

Principal’s Cup for Outstanding Achievement in Sport

Sami Donnelly

Sami’s achievements in Track Cycling this year include Gold in the Elite Women's Scratch Race at the Canterbury Track Cycling Championships, and Silver in the Individual Pursuit and 4th in the Omnium and Teams Pursuit at the Elite National Track Cycling Championships. At the 2019 Junior World Track Cycling Championships, in Germany earlier this year, she won a Silver Medal in the Teams Pursuit, losing to Italy by 0.007 of a second, and was 16th in the Omnium event.

Team of the Year

Table Tennis Mixed ‘A’ Team

The Mixed ‘A’ Table Tennis team has achieved a three-peat for Burnside High, winning the NZ Secondary Schools’ Table Tennis Teams’ title for the third year in a row. The team is Sang-Yong Park, Jiayi Zhou and Avon Liu.

 Contribution to Sport

Haley Grimes

Haley is a committed and valuable member of the Burnside High Sschool Netball programme. Haley’s netball season begins in February as an umpire for netball trials and pre-season tournaments. During the season she coached a Year 9 team who finished 3rd in their division. On top of this, Haley was venue controller of the Wednesday netball competition held at the Burnside High courts, in charge of 4 to 5 games held every Wednesday during Terms 2 and 3. Haley umpired Wednesday and Saturday teams and umpired for the Senior ‘A’ team SuperNet Reserve competition games held on Wednesday nights. Haley was efficient, reliable and committed all season.