News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Winning Pair

Winning Pair

New Zealand showjumper Samantha McIntosh, 34, has won the closing class of the day at Britain’s Horse of the Year show in Birmingham. McIntosh, who lives near Cologne, Germany, took the Zinc Management Trophy…

Back in the Ring

Back in the Ring

Heavyweight champion David Tua, 36, returned to the ring in “smashing fashion” knocking out fellow countryman Shane Cameron, 31, in the second round after seven seconds obliterating his opponent with combinations, crushing him with…

Hopes on Bahrain

Hopes on Bahrain

If New Zealand’s All Whites beat Bahrain on October 10 they will compete in their first World Cup since 1982 in Spain. Dunedin-born defender Andrew Boyens, 26, who currently plays for the New York…

Jones Hits Big

Jones Hits Big

Auckland teenager Sacha Jones has earned her biggest career win securing the US$25,000 ITF Darwin Challenger tournament with a 6–4, 6–1 win over Western Australian Bojana Bobusic. Showing a cool head in the mid-afternoon…

Lomu Gets Ripped

Lomu Gets Ripped

Former All Black great Jonah Lomu, 34, stepped back into the limelight coming second in the Men’s Open over-90kg class at the NZFBB Body Building Championships in Wellington, an exercise in weight-loss before making…

Chopping Champ

Chopping Champ

Thirty-six-year-old West Auckland lumberjack Jason Wynyard has won the overall title at the Stihl Timbersports Championships 2009 in Brienz, Switzerland. All participants were among the world elite, but the fastest and technically most perfect…

Bright Football Star

Bright Football Star

New Zealand striker Kris Bright, 22, has signed a two-year contract with England’s League Two Shrewsbury, and  according to the BBC’s sports blogger Paul Fletcher, “in an era when many footballers are regarded as…

Tall Blacks Thump Boomers

Tall Blacks Thump Boomers

New Zealand have beaten Australia 100–78 securing the top spot in the Oceania rankings and a place at the 2010 World Basketball Championships. New Zealand’s 22-point margin – its largest-ever win over Australia -…

Remarkable Wells

Remarkable Wells

Wanaka skier Jossi Wells, 19, won a silver at the 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games at the Remarkables in Queenstown for the freeski slopestyle event. Wells has a big profile in the United…

Mongolia on Horseback

Mongolia on Horseback

Tekapo man Dave Murray, 29, now based in Perth, is one of four New Zealanders taking part in the 1000km-long Mongol Derby, which began on August 22 and runs for two weeks. The race…

Vili Victorious

Vili Victorious

World champion shot putter Aucklander Valerie Vili, 25, took the women’s title at the 12th World Athletic Championships in Berlin with a final throw of 20.44m. “I’m satisfied I could defend my title. Tonight…

Afghan Warrior Signs Up

Afghan Warrior Signs Up

Seventeen-year-old Afghan refugee Omar Slaimankhel has signed a two-year contract with the Vodafone Warriors and “after surviving the kind of dangers his family has endured, playing rugby league must seem like a stroll in…

Ready for Battle

Ready for Battle

New Zealand’s national softball team, The Black Sox, feature in the ‘Freeze Frame’ segment of ShortList magazine, performing the haka prior to their game against Denmark at last month’s World Men’s Softball Championship in…

Walker Looks to London

Walker Looks to London

Kawerau BMX rider Sarah Walker, 21, took first place at the World BMX championships in the cruiser class (large wheel diameter) and the elite women’s title indoors at the Adelaide Showgrounds. Walker, a bronze…

Phenomenal in Peoria

Phenomenal in Peoria

Auckland athlete Kim Smith, 27, who is based in the United States, has won the 36th annual Steamboat Classic 4-mile women’s race in Peoria, Illinois, running the third fastest four-mile in history. Covering the…

Point of Pride

Point of Pride

The All Whites have secured their first ever point at a FIFA tournament in the South African Confederations Cup. Though goal-less for all three matches played, the New Zealand team — dressed in black…

Positive Thinking

Positive Thinking

All Whites coach Ricki Herbert is confident the All Whites will earn their first ever point in a FIFA Confederations Cup this month in South Africa. “I think we have to believe it’s a…

King of the Derby

King of the Derby

New Zealand jockey Larry Cassidy rode New Plymouth trainer John Wheeler’s Court Ruler to victory in the $500,000 Queensland Derby at Eagle Farm. Wheeler won his first Derby with his champion Rough Habit in…

First in Columbia

First in Columbia

Professional triathlete Aucklander Terenzo Bozzone, 24, has won the 26th annual Columbia Triathlon. In a stirring fight to the finish, Bozzone overtook Andrew Yoder of Columbia, Pennsylvania near the halfway point of the 10km…

For a Worthy Cause

For a Worthy Cause

New Zealand-born actress, director and producer Anna Wilding has launched a new charity that aims to fill an overlooked gap in the charity and not-for-profit marketplace. The Wilding Foundation awards scholarships to those…

Snowed In

Snowed In

Some of New Zealand’s top ski spots are reviewed by worldwide online ski site On the Snow, including “the quirky ski field that is home to Burton’s The Stash, a natural terrain run with…

On Slick for a First

On Slick for a First

Teenage jockey Samantha Collett — who in only three years has won more than 100 races — rode Sir Slick in the $AU2 million Emirates Doncaster Mile at Royal Randwick, the “biggest race” she’s…

Football Ambassador

Football Ambassador

6 April 2009 – Christchurch professional footballer Ryan Nelsen, 31, is a pivotal member of English Premier League side Blackburn Rovers, one of a number of teams fighting against relegation this season. Nelsen has…

Potential Pro

Potential Pro

Christchurch student James Meredith, 19, is a freshman at Boise State University and since joining the university’s tennis team in January, Meredith has been called “unbelievable” and “one of the best talents” the squad…

Big Easy Baller

Big Easy Baller

Auckland local Sean Marks is enjoying regular playing time on the New Orleans Hornets, one of America’s top basketball teams. Recently interviewed by InsiderHoops.com, Marks describes how he grew up in a markedly different…

Promoting Touch

Promoting Touch

New Zealander Miles Darby, 46, IT project manager at Credit Suisse Singapore, is also president of the city’s amateur Monsoon Touch Football Club. Darby has been playing the sport in Singapore for over a…

A New Deal

A New Deal

Phillip Alder of the New York Times describes “a tied world record,” charting out an exceedingly rare occurrence at last year’s national bridge congress in Hamilton, 60 miles south of Auckland. “New Zealand is…

Courting Comparison

Courting Comparison

New Zealand netball is the “main ‘girl’s game'” and has a “‘World Championships’ that only Australia and New Zealand can realistically win,” writes Frank Shanly in a profile about the sport in Indiana daily…

Medals From the Velodrome

Medals From the Velodrome

Christchurch omnium champion Hayden Godfrey, 30, has won gold at the Beijing UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classic series. Godfrey beat Great Britain’s Chris Newton in the men’s 60-lap, 15km scratch race final. New…

An Honourable Year

An Honourable Year

New Zealand’s 2008 Beijing contingent was well represented in the New Year’s Honours list and included Christchurch Paralympics swimmer Sophie Pascoe, 16, board sailor Tom Ashley and shot putter Valerie Vili. In total, seven…

Out on a Win

Out on a Win

Champion Taranaki jockey Greg Childs, 46, is retiring from a 30-year career which began in New Zealand in the 1970s as an apprentice and ended with a win in the Bounty Hawk Handicap on…

Tall Fern Makes UConn

Tall Fern Makes UConn

Auckland basketball player Jessica McCormack, 19, who was the youngest member of the New Zealand team at the Beijing Olympics this year, now plays for the top-ranked University of Connecticut (UConn) as a…

Definitely No Regrets

Definitely No Regrets

The Kiwis dismissed the sceptics and the Kangaroos to win the Rugby League World Cup in Brisbane, beating the Australians 34-20, their first ever World Cup win. Outside of the New Zealand camp, few…

Cambodian Stint Rewarded

Cambodian Stint Rewarded

World aerobics champion Botany Downs local Angela McMillan, 28, has been in Phnom Penh coaching the Cambodian men’s team ahead of December’s Asian Aerobic Gymnastics Championships in Bangkok. McMillan, who claimed the world title…

Trumps in Mexico

Trumps in Mexico

Whangarei triathlete Sam Warriner, 37, took gold at the Huatulco BG World Cup in Mexico and with the win becomes the 2008 BG Triathlon World Cup series champion. Warriner was victorious in a time…

Sailing Event Makes NZ

Sailing Event Makes NZ

Lake Rotorua will host the 2009 IFDS World Blind Sailing Championships from 12-21 March. Organizing committee chairman Don McGowan says the goal is to provide a world class regatta, combined with a true New…

Triumph for the Ferns

Triumph for the Ferns

The Silver Ferns have won the deciding netball test against England 61-22 in the best of three series final in Palmerston North. Both teams came out firing on Saturday night but it was the…

Dixon’s Big Apple Re-run

Dixon’s Big Apple Re-run

On 23 October 1983, Nelson-born middle distance runner Rod Dixon raced past UK-emigrant Geoff Smith and won the New York City Marathon raising his hands to the sky in victory. The winning snapshot is…

Flight from the Top

Flight from the Top

New Zealand world and Guinness record skydiver Wendy Smith was one of three daredevils to leap from an aircraft at a record height of 9000m in the skies above Mount Everest, free-falling for one minute…

Fleecing the Competition

Fleecing the Competition

New Zealand took home four of the six titles at the 13th Golden Shears World Championships held in Bjerkrheim, Norway, with Stratford farmer Paul Avery, 41 and Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick, 38, coming first…

Willis’ Photo Finish

Willis’ Photo Finish

Olympic bronze medallist Lower Hutt athlete Nick Willis, 25, has won New York’s Fifth Avenue Mile, a race which John Walker won in 1984. Michigan-based Willis finished in 3 minutes, 50.5 seconds to…

Taking on the Chutes

Taking on the Chutes

The fourth annual Volkl NZ Freeski Open held at Treble Cone in late August, marking the season opener of the international ski calendar, saw Dunedin’s Alastair Eason and Wanaka’s Janina Kuzma take the top…

On Board for Gold

On Board for Gold

World champion Auckland windsurfer Tom Ashley, 24, sailed past his rivals, to claim first place in the men’s competition and a gold medal, the third won by the New Zealand Olympic contingent in Beijing….

From Within the Soul

From Within the Soul

Lower Hutt runner Nick Willis surged forward in the final moments of the men’s 1500m for third place, in a race Willis’ University of Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said the 25-year-old “always had the…

In Search of a History

In Search of a History

New Zealand film producer and public speaker Anna Wilding is now writing regularly for the TennisGrandStand site, and in her first column, as the US Open approaches, she writes about her great uncle, tennis…

Four Years Pays Off

Four Years Pays Off

Athens silver medallist triathlete Bevan Docherty, 31, took third place and a bronze medal in the men’s triathlon at the Beijing Olympics and is determined to try for the gold in four years time….

Medal Haul in Beijing

Medal Haul in Beijing

Hastings twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell took gold medals in the double skulls beating their German rivals by 0.01 sec, the win on the same day Mahe Drysdale won a bronze in the single skulls and…

Gold in the Bird’s Nest

Gold in the Bird’s Nest

Auckland athlete Valerie Vili, 23, has won a gold medal in shot put at the Beijing Olympics, the first for New Zealand in track and field since John Walker’s gold in the 1500m at…

Cooking by Numbers

Cooking by Numbers

Wellingtonian Matt Moss, 36, left New Zealand 16 years ago to play rugby in Britain, Germany and the United States winding up in Beijing working for catering company, Aramark as operations manager at the…

Into the Crystal Ball

Into the Crystal Ball

Mark Todd, voted Rider of the Century 20th by the International Equestrian Centre, is hoping to compete next at the World Championships in Kentucky in 2010 and is not ruling out the London 2012…

Macchiato Marathon

Macchiato Marathon

The 182-strong New Zealand Olympic team will have flat whites and long blacks on tap in Beijing thanks to award-winning barista Julianne Frith, 21, from Auckland, who was selected by a panel of former…

Joltin’ with the Jays

Joltin’ with the Jays

Aucklander Scott Campbell, 23, shook hands with Joe DiMaggio in 1995 as a New Zealand representative at the World Children’s Baseball Fair in Japan and this week, 13 years later, Campbell played Dimaggio’s Yankee…

One of Five Doubles

One of Five Doubles

Opunake-born middle-distance runner Peter Snell, who achieved the 800m and 1500m Olympic double, is included alongside other double victors, Dame Kelly Holmes and Albert Hill, on a BBC blog in a build-up to this…

Adventure at Speed

Adventure at Speed

Christchurch endurance athlete and orienteering champion Chris Forne, 31, has navigated Team Nike to first place in America’s 10-day adventure race, Primal Quest Montana 2008. Over 800km and up heights of more than 30,000m,…

Grass Court Skill

Grass Court Skill

New Zealand’s Number 1 tennis player Marina Erakovic, 20, who has risen 100 places in world rankings to within the top 50, is compared with sporting great Justine Henin on Wimbledon’s official site. In…

Wood Choppin’ Win

Wood Choppin’ Win

Auckland lumberjack Dion Lane, 31, has sawn and chopped his way to overall victory at the Midwestern Lumberjack Championships held in Rochester, United States, beating fellow New Zealander and brother-in-law Jason Wynyard. Lane…