Surfing New Zealand won the Event Excellence Award at the 2011 New Zealand Sport and Recreation Awards last night (Monday 18th April) for the hosting of the 2010 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Surfing Championship held at Piha Beach, Auckland in January last year.
Surfing New Zealand Executive Officer Greg Townsend was present to accept the award.
“This is a fantastic honour for our organisation, and I would very much like to thank SPARC and the judges for this award.”
“We couldn’t be happier for the event to be acknowledged in this way and win an award amongst such strong competition.”
The finalists for the award were the World Junior Surfing Championship, the 2010 FIS Freestyle and Snowboard Junior World Championships and the Fifteenth FINA Women’s Water Polo World Cup.
Held in Piha from 20-28 January 2010, the 2010 Quiksilver ISA World Junior Championship showcased more than 200 of the best under-18 surfers from around the world.
“Last year we staged what was the largest single event in the organisation’s history. This event, bringing together over 200 of the world’s best young surfers, was from all viewpoints a fantastic success. Our wonderful sponsors including SPARC, bought into our vision of what the country’s largest surfing event should look like, and a great team, volunteers and professionals alike, fully delivered into this vision” said Townsend.
The judges said Surfing New Zealand were deserving winners due to the professional way the event was run. This was the first time the event was held in Australasia and it achieved a high profile.
Media Release, Surfing NZ, Tuesday, 19 April 2011