April Sporting Spotlight

It's been another busy month for sport in New Zealand, and our athletes have been working hard as we get even closer to Paris 2024.

This month our New Zealand Olympic team song ‘Ain’t Just Dreaming’ hit officially #1 on the Hot 20 NZ Singles Chart! We’re grateful for all the support, let’s keep these vibes going! Listen to it HERE. 

This month, the New Zealand Olympic Swimming Trials saw Hazel Ouwehand smashing her NZ Record and earning an Olympic Qualification time of 57.43s. 20-year-old Cameron Gray also broke the New Zealand national record in the 100 freestyle. He touched the wall in a time of 48.26 during his preliminary heat to clip his own previous record of 48.29. 

In athletics, Connor Bell threw a new national record for the Men's Discus of 68.10m at Throw Town Ramona, USA adding 1.39m to his previous national record of 66.71m. 

Over in Shanghai, Hamish Kerr won the Shanghai Diamond League with a jump of 2.31m in the Men’s High Jump. 

Ellesse Andrews made a strong return from injury to win the keirin and finish runner-up in the individual sprint at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Canada.

This month has been a busy one for selections to the New Zealand team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

Tayla Ford (Tainui) is set to become the first ever New Zealand woman to wrestle at Olympic Games, with the 30-year-old selected to the New Zealand Team for Paris 2024.

Ford has been involved in wrestling for more than 20 years, competing nationally and internationally since she was 16. Notably, the Adelaide based athlete has competed at three Commonwealth Games, winning bronze at both Glasgow 2014 and Birmingham 2022.

Tokyo 2020 Bronze medallist Dylan Schmidt has been named to the New Zealand Team for Paris 2024, where he’ll be hunting another Olympic medal.

He’s joined by Maddie Davidson, who's been named for her second Olympic Games following Tokyo 2020, where she became the first ever woman to compete in trampoline for New Zealand at Games.

Paris will be the third Olympic Games for 27-year-old Schmidt, who was crowned World Champion in 2022.

This month we named our largest ever women’s canoe sprint team for the Olympic Games, with six athletes set to wear the fern and paddle for New Zealand in Paris. The athletes will compete across the K1, K2 and K4 events at the Games, with New Zealand’s most successful ever Olympian, Dame Lisa Carrington, to lead the charge and contest all three disciplines.

The six-time Olympic medalist will be joined by Gisborne’s Alicia Hoskin in the K2, as the duo look to defend the gold medal won by Dame Lisa and Caitlin Regal at the Tokyo Games.

Dame Lisa and Hoskin will also team up with Games debutants Tara Vaughan and Olivia Brett in the K4. The quartet go into the Games as World Champions, having last year won New Zealand’s first ever world title in the big boat.

Rio 2016 Olympian Aimee Fisher also makes her Olympic return. She’ll contest the K1 500m, as well as the K2 500 where she’ll be joined in the boat by the bolter of the squad Dunedin’s Lucy Matehaere.

A pair of reigning World Indoor champions and two former Olympic medallists have earned selection as part of the initial 15-strong athletics team set to compete at Paris 2024.

Fresh from his spellbinding World Indoor high jump gold medal and national record performance of 2.36m in Glasgow last month, Hamish Kerr has earned selection for a second crack at the Olympic Games. 

New Zealand’s other current World Indoor champion George Beamish makes his Olympic debut in the men’s 3000m steeplechase – becoming the first Kiwi steeplechaser at an Olympic Games for 40 years.

The team will see the welcome return of pole vaulter Eliza McCartney, who last competed on the Olympic stage when winning bronze as a teenager at Rio 2016.

To further underline the strength and depth of women’s vaulting in New Zealand, McCartney will be joined on the New Zealand team by Olympic debutants Olivia McTaggart, and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Imogen Ayris – subject to the pair meeting performance conditions.

Both Tom Walsh and Jacko Gill are all set for a third successive Olympic appearance in the men’s shot. Christchurch-based Walsh, the current Commonwealth champion, is hunting history as he bids to become the first Kiwi man to land athletics medals at three successive Olympics after snaring bronze at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

Gill, the Commonwealth silver medallist, will be seeking to better his ninth-place finish at each of the past two Olympic Games. 

Further bolstering the New Zealand shot challenge is Maddi Wesche, who is set for her second Olympic appearance. The 2020 Tokyo Olympic sixth place finisher and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist produced the longest throw of her career with a 19.62m effort to place fourth at the World Indoor Championships last month.

World Indoor 60m fourth place finisher Zoe Hobbs is also set for her Olympic debut as she becomes the first Kiwi to be selected in the women’s 100m at an Olympic Games since 1976.

The first Oceania woman to run a sub-11-second 100m is in excellent form and the 26-year-old Auckland-based athlete will be sure to garner much attention as she bids to become the first Kiwi to reach an Olympic 100m final for 100 years since Sir Arthur Porritt won men’s 100m bronze at the 1924 Paris Games.

Papamoa-based Sam Tanner, the New Zealand all-time number two for the 1500m and mile, has earned selection in the men’s 1500m at a second successive Olympic Games while Camille French has booked her ticket for Paris in the marathon. French, 33, a mum to Sienna, who was born in 2022, earned the Olympic entry standard with a 2:26:08 performance in Valencia. She previously competed in the 5000m and 10,000m at the Tokyo Olympics.

Three further throwers will also feature in Paris as Connor Bell (men’s discus), Tori Peeters (women’s javelin) and Lauren Bruce (women’s hammer, subject to additional conditions) have earned Paris 2024 selection. Auckland-based Bell, who bettered his national discus record with a stunning 68.10m throw in Oklahoma on 14 April, and Peeters, who finished second in the 2023 Diamond League Final in Eugene, will be making their Olympic debuts. 

The team is rounded out by Ethan Olivier, 18, who is set to become the first New Zealand triple jumper to compete at an Olympic Games since Dave Norris at the 1960 Rome Olympics. 

A strong team of nine swimming athletes has been named represent New Zealand at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The team is led by current World Champions Lewis Clareburt (Waikato-Tainui) and Erika Fairweather (Ngāi Tahu). Clareburt won the 400m Individual Medley at this year’s Swimming World Championships in Doha, while Fairweather picked up her title in the 400m Freestyle, as well as winning silver in the 200m Free and bronze in the 800m Free.

They’re joined by fellow Tokyo Olympian Eve Thomas, who will also have a busy programme, contesting four events.

The other six athletes will make their Olympic debuts in Paris after swimming qualification times at the New Zealand Swimming Championships earlier this month.

Hazel Ouwehand (Pron Ou-wi-hand) was one of the standout performers at the meet, storming home in the Women's 100m Butterfly in a New Zealand record time of 57.43s, almost half a second under the Paris Olympic Games qualifying time. 

For 200m Backstroke athlete Kane Follows the selection is particularly sweet. The 27-year-old has been on the cusp of making the national team for years, with the Paris Olympics to be his international representative debut.

Sprinters Taiko Torepe-Ormsby (Ngāi Tahu) and Cameron Gray are the other men in the Olympic squad. Torepe-Ormsby produced the fastest 50m Freestyle swim ever by a New Zealander (21.86s) as he qualified for Paris, while Cameron Gray beat his own New Zealand record in the 100m Freestyle.

Caitlin Deans and Laticia Leigh Transom round out the team, contesting the women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay alongside Fairweather and Thomas.