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| Dave Beeche and Murray McCully (Photo: SPARC) |
Triathlon New Zealand CEO Dave Beeche was last night honoured with the Leadership Award at the annual SPARC Sector Awards Evening, one he accepted on behalf of his all stakeholders in the sport of Triathlon.
It was a proud Beeche who accepted the award from Minister of Sport Murray McCully last night, and he was quick to acknowledge the team at Tri NZ and the wider triathlon community.
"I am incredibly honoured and humbled by this award and would like to say thanks to SPARC for the effort they have put into recognising various achievements in the sport sector. In my view, leadership is about surrounding yourself with good people and I have been very lucky to have such a supportive and helpful chair and Board, as well as an inspirational and passionate team to work with. Triathlon is on a journey and I feel like while we have come a long way in the past 4 years, however we still have a long way to go to realise the full potential of our exciting sport.
"Leadership roles in the sector are not easy, particularly managing the demands of a wide variety of stakeholders, but these big challenges come with equally big rewards, and the one that stands out for me is the quality of people involved in the sector who achieve some amazing outcomes at the coal face of sport. These people make this an inspirational job to work in and I am grateful for having been given the opportunity to work in sport."
Tri NZ President Garry Boon is delighted for Beeche, but also sees it as recognition for the incredible growth the sport has fostered in recent years.
"Dave has been a tireless worker for this sport and all who take part in it. He has overseen an amazing four years of huge change and rapid growth, at all times steering the ship on the right course and on a few occasions taking the lead in changing that course for the better.
"Dave talks about his wonderful team at Tri NZ and the incredible support the sport receives from a dedicated volunteer and participant community, all of which is true. But as CEO he has set the tone, he has indeed shown great leadership to position triathlon as one of the SPARC recognized high performance sports but also the country's fastest growing participation sports, we are proud to have him as our CEO."
SPARC and the judges recognised the quality of the nominations in the Leadership category when making their remarks about Beeche;
The judges said this proved the most difficult category to decide but they also felt that experiencing such difficulty in deciding on a winner was a good problem to have as it showed how many outstanding individuals there were leading in the sport and recreation sector. They said Beeche was an outstanding leader who was passionate about his sport, which was now one of the fastest growing sports in the country. He was a mentor to other leaders in the sector.
Including Lifetime Achievement Awards, other awards presented were:
The Innovation Award – Festival of Squash – Squash New Zealand
The judges said the organisers of the tournament had done something completely different by putting a glass squash court in the middle of Mt Maunganui's Bayfair Shopping Centre to quite literally bring the sport to the public. Thirteen of the world's top 20 players took part in the tournament, entertaining spectators and shoppers alike.
The Event Excellence Award – 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games – Winter Games New Zealand
The judges said the organisation behind this world class event was meticulous. They noted that the Winter Games was the first of its kind, was started from scratch and put New Zealand on the map. The Winter Games were endorsed by international sports bodies, 816 competitors attended from 41 countries, there was a global television audience of 765 million and the event posted a surplus.
The Project Collaboration Award – Community Swim
John Walker FIND YOUR FIELD OF DREAMS Foundation (FYFOD); Manukau Leisure Services (MLS); Manukau City Council (MCC); Counties Manukau Sport (CMS); WaterSafe Auckland.
The judges said the organisers of the Community Swim project believed that it was every child's right to learn to swim. They had a vision about providing school children in Manukau with free swimming lessons and they had made it happen. The community had been fully involved, and there had been anecdotal evidence that truancy levels were down on the days the buses turned up to take the children to their swimming lessons.
The Commercial Partnership Award – BikeNZ and RaboPlus
The judges said BikeNZ had been very clever about overcoming the tradition of membership when creating its RideStrong on-line cycling community and had formed a partnership with RaboPlus which went beyond dollars. The benefits to both partners were outstanding and provided an example for how others in the sector could similarly succeed.
Lifetime Achievement Awards
Graeme Dingle
Graeme Dingle ONZM MBE is an inspiring adventurer, author and community leader. His passion for mountaineering and the outdoors has taken him on numerous adventures including in New Zealand, Europe and the Himalayas. He turned his passion for the outdoors into a career and was a founding member of the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoors Pursuit Centre and the Foundation for Youth Development (formerly Project K). He is a member of the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Recreation Council (SEHORC) which advises SPARC on issues relating to recreation. He has received numerous awards including the MBE for service to outdoor pursuits. He is a recipient of the United States National Science Foundation's Antarctic Service Award, is a recipient of the Governor General's Award for Mountain Rescue and he is an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Dave Gerrard
Dave Gerrard OBE CNZM is a former Olympic Games swimming representative (he specialised in butterfly) and Commonwealth Games gold and bronze medalist. After he retired from competition, Gerrard gained a doctorate in medicine. He is highly regarded in the field of sports medicine and has been team doctor at several Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games. He was chef de mission at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and at the 1996 Summer Olympics. In 1996, he was awarded the OBE for services to medicine and sport. In 2007, he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
SPARC is the government agency charged with promoting, encouraging and supporting sport and physical recreation in New Zealand. For more information, visit www.sparc.org.nz.
