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2019 Sports Scholarship Recipients
West Auckland pre elite athletes receiving the Don Oliver Youth Sport Foundation Sports Scholarships for 2018. 14 athletes have shown promise to perform at an elite level and have been given a helping hand to get there by the great support of the Waitakere Community.
Kanah Andrews-Nahu
Olympic Weightlifting
Gold
Kanah is 18 years old and attends AUT North Shore.
She has been lifting competitively in New Zealand
for over 5 years. Currently ranked number 1 in New Zealand and the Oceania in several different weight divisions, (Junior and Senior) in the 76kg and 81kg divisions, she also holds over 140+ New Zealand Olympic weightlifting records in the Youth, Junior & Senior divisions in New Zealand. Kanah holds Oceania and Commonwealth records achieved at the Pacific games in Samoa, held in conjunction with the Oceania and Commonwealth games. At this competition Kanah won 6 gold medals and 1 bronze medal. In 2019 she competed at the IWF Junior Worlds in Fiji
and won New Zealand’s first ever gold medal at a world weightlifting championship. Her current focus is working towards qualifying to compete for New Zealand at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Kaila Ru
Volleball
Silver
Kaila is 17 years old, goes to Westlake Girls High School, and plays volleyball for the Harbour Raiders.
She participated in a test series against Australia in June, playing for the New Zealand Women’s Volley Ferns (NZ Volley Ferns is the highest level of NZ Volleyball). She was selected to play in the New Zealand under 23 women’s volleyball team travelling to Vietnam in July this year.
Kaila wants to travel to the United States for a 4 year full paying scholarship at a division 1 school.
She aspires to play pro volleyball and be payed to play for a club team in Europe or Asia which is where the top players are associated.
Mackenzie Vallenoweth
Taekwondo
Bronze
Mackenzie is 19 years old and is attending Massey University part time. She is currently ranked first in New Zealand for Taekwondo after being involved in the sport for 9 years. Her passion has also forged her pathway into boxing.
Mackenzie is a fighter with consistent performance and constantly wins high level competitions. Over the last five years she has consistently medalled in all regional and national competitions. She travels to Tauranga and Wellington regularly to train with The NZ Taekwondo Team and in Auckland trains with Master Paul Sitapa and at The Combat Centre. Her goals include competing in 2020 & 2024 Olympic games and also competing and medalling at the Taekwondo World Championships.
Niall Malone
Sailing
Bronze
Niall is 19 years old and started sailing when he was 12 years old and now races on keel boats with the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
In 2018 he raced in the Nespresso International with a 4th placing, a 1st placing in the Volvo M32 Import Series, 2nd in the Jack Tar Auckland Regatta, 2nd in the Youth Match Racing World Trials and 1st in the Australian Match Racing Championships.
A 2018 highlight was winning the Musto International Grade 2 Regatta in Sydney and in 2019 being ranked the highest Irish match racer in the world. He also achieved 4th in the 2019 Govenors Cup. He continues competing in offshore racing out of Auckland and plans to participate in the 2020 Auckland to Fiji race. His long term goal is to become a professional sailor and compete in The America’s Cup and Round the World Ocean Race.
Zayde White
Para-athlete Barzilian Ju Jitsu
2019 Harry O'Rourke Memorial Award
Zayde is 15 years old, attends Waitakere College and has been training in Brazilian Ju Jitsu since November 2018.
He regularly competes and currently holds a 1 stripe white belt, achieving an exhibition match gold medal at the NZ nationals held in Auckland. In September he competed in 2 tournaments in Wellington. Zayde trains three times a week and complements this with two weekly personal training sessions under his coach Pedro Fernandes at the Tu Kaha Ju Jitsu Club.
He has set his sights on achieving a blue belt next year and competing in Australia in Melbourne in 2020. His long term goals are to win a black belt world medal and to one day own his own gym. Zayde is totally blind.
Lucy Makaea
Surf Lifesaving
Silver
Surf-lifesaver Lucy Makaea is 19 years old and has an impressive record medalling throughout the 2018/19 season.
Her greatest achievement so far was winning the world title at the 2018 Youth Surf Life-Saving World Games. She won 9 medals in total, breaking 3 individual NZ under 19 women’s records and 2 NZ team records.
In the near future she plans to break the 100 rescue medley record and the 200 super life saver record. Looking further ahead she plans to make the Open German Cup Team and go compete in the German European cup.
She has set her sights on making the NZ Black Fins Worlds Team for the 202 World Games in Italy.
Nathan Brown
Diving
Bronze
This year Nathan has competed at the Auckland champs and the New Zealand nationals, placing 1st in almost all of the events he entered.
At the end of last year, he debuted at the Gold Coast Grand Prix (part of the world circuit). He was able to make it to the semi finals and placed 12th beating some of the other divers that later attended the 2018 commonwealth games.
Nathan is getting ready to leave for the Ukraine for the FINA Diving World Jr Champs and will be one of 5 divers from New Zealand that will be competing against 43 other countries. Here he aims to get to finals and thus automatically qualify for the Youth Olympics.
In the future he is aiming to qualify for and attend the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Ikko Shibuya
Swimming
Training Grant
kko is an 18 year old competitor from Mt Eden Swimming Club attending Avondale College.
In 2018 he was selected for the Auckland team for the 2019 Victorian Age LC Championships and was also selected for the SNZ Bronze Squad. He received the Jason Twigg Trophy for Outstanding Achievement in Sport (Boys) at Avondale College and was a finalist at both the College Sport Young Sportsperson of the Year Awards for Swimming and at The Trusts Sport Waitakere Excellence Awards for Secondary School Sportsperson of the Year.
In 2019 he was selected for the Auckland Swimming Talent ID Squad, and the shortlist for the Victorian Age LC Championships Auckland squad. His goals include achieving 700 FINA points in the
200 free at the NZ Short Course Champs this year and to make the final team for the Victorian Age LC Championships. He aims to make 750 FINA points in one of his races before 2020.
Currently he is working on the 200 free, and I would like to break the 4 minutes by next year.
Charlotte Brown
Triathlon
Training Grant
Charlotte is 15 years old, attends Waitakere College and competes in triathlon events holding a current New Zealand ranking of 16th.
She has achieved 4th in both the Auckland Secondary Schools Triathlon and Duathlon and was placed 7th in the NZ Kinloch Triathlon Series in Taupo.
Her achievements mean she is in the top three in New Zealand for Triathlon, Duathlon, Aquathon and Ocean Swimming. She would like to represent New Zealand in Trialthon at the Youth Olympics and compete in the ITU World Circuit.
Her ultimate dreams would be to go to the Commonwealth Games and then to compete in the Olympic Games with the best in the world.
Percy Maka
Athletics - Discus and Shot Put
Training Grant
Percy is 14 years old and goes to St Peters College.
He says his greatest sporting achievement so far is holding the International Age World Discus Record for 11 and 12 year olds.
Percy has set his sights on breaking the 14 year old Auckland Discus and Shot Put records and the National Secondary School Discus and Shot Put records at the Nationals to be held in Wellington in December.
His short term goal for the coming season is to break the world record for the 1 kg discus of 70m and 1.5kg discus at 52m.
His future goals include representing New Zealand at the World Champs and Olympics and wants to break as many records as he can like his role model Jacko Gill.
Savannah Scheen
Athletics - Javelin and Discus
Training Grant
Savannah is 18 years old and goes to Hobson Point Secondary School. She has been involved with athletics from age 6.
Her ultimate goals are to medal at the Worlds, Commonwealth and Olympic Games. Since 2017 she has claimed 7 medals at Athletics New Zealand Nationals and hopes to make an international debut next year at the Australian Nationals and attended the under 20 IAAF competitions.
Recent achievements include
North Island Secondary Schools SG Discus:1st, College Sport Auckland Athletics Championship Javelin: 1st/ Gold, College Sport Auckland Athletics Championship Discus: 1st/ Gold, Athletics New Zealand Pathway 2 podiums, gold and bronze
She attributes her success to a developed mental attitude to training, confidence building and winning with help from her coach Mike Schofield.
Joshua Welts
Baseball
Traing Grant
Joshua is15 years old, attends Liston College and plays baseball with the Waitakere Bears.
His recent achievements include:
Waitakere Bears Club 2018-19 Gold Glove Award (top fielder), and Junior Player of the Year, 2018-19 under 15 National Team Taiwan Tour.
In the future Joshua’s goals include:
Earning a starting position on the 2019-20 Waitakere Bears Premier Men’s team, making the squad for the Baseball NZ under 18 team for the 2020 Arizona Fall Classic, continuing to assistant coach the club’s junior players. He also aspires to earn a degree from the University of California, be the first from West Auckland to be draughted by Major League Baseball and to earn a starting position on a Major League team win the World Series.
Sam Cook
Cricket
Training Grant
Sam is 19 years old from Titirangi and has been playing cricket since he was 5 years old.
He is regularly invited to train with the Auckland Aces and was selected to provide bowling practice for the Black Caps and Sri Lankan teams during their tour of NZ. His passion for the game has seen him achieved NZ Cricket Coaching Level 1 Certificate.
He has spent a season in England playing for Sparsholt Cricket Club and training with Hampshire County Cricket Club. His best stats were playing Free Foresters Club against the Minor Counties - 2 wickets for 9 runs off 14 overs and 30 runs off the bat. His greatest cricketing achievement to date is a 20/20 game against Orewa College. He bowled 4 overs, got 8 wickets – which included a triple hat-trick for a total of 7 runs against the score-board.
He aspires to play for Auckland and ultimately the Black Caps and make a career out of his passion for cricket
James Speedy
BMX
Training Grant
James is 15 years old and attends Kaipara College.
His greatest achievement in his chosen sport to date is placing 2nd in the 14 year old boys class and 1st in the 13/14 year old cruiser class in the 2018 BMX NZ National Championships.
In the 2019 Oceania Championship he achieved 3rd in the 15 year old boys and 2nd in the 15-34 cruiser class. He was selected for the BMX NZ Junior Development Team and competed at the BMX World Championship in Zolder Belgium.
Next year he is aiming to get in the top 8 at the NZ Championships, and hopefully get a podium finish.
Next will be Worlds in 2020 in Houston Texas.