Ngā Tohu Kahurangi 2020

Blues Awards 2020

Find out who in the University community took away the major accolades at this year’s Blues Awards.

Major Award Winners

Award for the Most Meritorious Innovation

Taylor Gray

Commerce student Taylor co-founded Radic Performance, the first company in the world dedicated to the design and manufacturing of 3D printed mountain bike brakes, all proudly made in New Zealand. Taylor saw there was little to no development using 3D printing technology within the mountain biking and motorbiking industry. He started the company to fill this gap, bringing cutting edge technologies into their design and manufacturing processes to create the most high-performance products on the market.

Award for the Most Meritorious Performance (Arts and Cultural)

Abdallah Alayan

Postgraduate architecture student Abdallah was a finalist in the student category of the renowned 2019 Interior Awards for his design project ‘Te Papa
North’, which was also recognised at the Best Awards with a Gold Pin for spatial excellence. Abdallah’s work ‘Faith in Fiordland’ was highly commended at the Auckland Architecture Association’s Visionary Architecture, profiled in
Architecture NZ magazine, and featured as the cover story for the March New Zealand Listener. The work was created in the aftermath of the Christchurch terror attack and was described as being “premised on inclusivity and inspired with optimism.”

Award for the Most Outstanding Contribution (Service and Leadership)

Sita Tarini Clark

Medical student Sita initiated and led a significant fundraising event for the CatWalk Trust, New Zealand’s Spinal Cord Injury Research Trust. ‘ThirtyEight in 38’ saw a team individually climbing Mauao (Mount Maunganui) 38 times – the equivalent height of Mount Everest – in 38 hours. The team raised $33,674.81 in support of their mission and increased publicity for New Zealanders living with a spinal cord injury through social media, radio, and print campaigns.

Major Pasifika Award

Sulu Fitzpatrick

Arts student Sulu was a member of the 2019 Central Pulse netball team who won the ANZ Netball Premiership. She was also selected to be part of the Silver Ferns netball team non-travelling reserve for the 2019 Netball World Cup and the 2019/2020 Silver Ferns Netball Development Squad, and this year has become a member of the Northern Mystics netball team.

Sportsman of the Year and Award for the Most Meritorious Performance (Sport)

Michael Brake

Engineering student Michael earned silver at the 2019 World Rowing Championships in Men’s Pair, Austria. He also received the Men’s Pair silver and bronze at World Rowing Cups Two and Three, respectively.

Sportswoman of the Year

Brianna Reynolds-Smith

Commerce student and sailor Brianna and her teammate placed 15th at the 2019 470 World Championship in Enoshima, Japan, 7th at the Enoshima World Cup, and 1st with the female team at the 2020 470 NZ Championships. Brianna is also part of the duo that qualified to represent New Zealand at the Tokyo Olympics in the 470 Women’s Class.

Major Māori Award

Isla Norman-Bell

Sport student Isla competed in the New Zealand Rugby Red Bull Ignite7 Tournament and New Zealand Rugby Sevens National Tournament, placing 1st and 3rd, respectively. Isla was also named the most valuable player for the 2nd year at the Ignite Tournament. She was invited to the New Zealand Black Ferns Sevens development team. Isla is also a current New Zealand Open Women’s Touch Black, competing at the 2020 Trans-Tasman Tournament.

Para-athlete

Anna Steven

Science student Anna was selected to represent New Zealand in the T64 100m and 200m at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai, placing 7th in the 200m final and 14th overall in
the 100m – a new Oceania area record.