America's Cup - Emirates Team New Zealand win Supreme NZ Sports Award
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 8 Feb 2018 01:53 PST
8 February 2018
Emirates Team New Zealand crosses the finish line in Bermuda in Race 9 to win the 35th Match for the America's Cup 8-1 © Richard Gladwell
America's Cup champions, Emirates Team New Zealand have been awarded the Supreme Award at the 55th Halberg Awards - New Zealand's pre-eminent event to honour and celebrate New Zealand sporting excellence.
The black-tie event was held in Auckland on Thursday evening.
It was the fourth time that sailors have won the award since its inception in 1949 as the New Zealand Sportsman's Trophy. The awards lapsed in 1960 and werre then picked up again in 1963 by Sir Murray Halberg, a Gold Medalist at the Rome Olympics, who started a Trust for children with disabilities.
The Award has been revamped over the years and the Supreme Winner is chosen from the winners of several categories. Emirates Team New Zealand won the Team of the Year Award, knocking out their popular rival for the Supreme Award, the World Champion Womens Rugby Team.
The Supreme Award was somewhat reluctantly accepted by the team, who have turned having a team culture into an art form. Eventually Design Team head Dan Bernasconi accepted the trophy before handing it around the various team members on stage, which included sailing crew, shore crew, and coaches. The acceptance speech was made by Chief Operating Officer Kevin Shoebridge.
Team CEO, Grant Dalton did not appear with the team, neither did skipper Glenn Ashby. Also missing was a hook up with Peter Burling and/or Blair Tuke who are competing in Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, but make regular mid-ocean television news appearances.
Yachting New Zealand had also wanted to nominate Peter Burling for the Sports Man of the Year, however Emirates Team New Zealand refused to allow individual members of the team to be singled out, and would only accept a nomination in the Sports Team of the Year category.
The Sports Team of the Year trophy was accepted by coach Ray Davies along with a smaller group of team members.
Previous winners of the Supreme Award or its equivalent include One Ton Cup winner, Chris Bouzaid (1969), Peter Blake (1990), Team New Zealand (1995). Bouzaid was also a co-presenter of the Coach of the Year Award, as was Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze medalist Barbara Kendall who co-presented a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Young Laser Radial sailor Josh Armit was a finalist in the Emerging Talent Award.
Also honoured at the ceremony was World Champion Sculler and 2000 Olympic Single Sculls Champion Rob Waddell, who was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame. After retiring from Rowing, Waddell switched to Emirates Team New Zealand as a grinder and was with the team for 13 years, leaving after the 34th America's Cup in San Francisco.
Emirates Team new Zealand are also one of the finalists for the prestigious Laureus World Team of the Year award to be announced in Monaco later this year.
This Emirates Team New Zealand pretty well nails it - interview by Radio New Zealand during the Victory Parade in Auckland.