Our very own Tanya Murray has just achieved an extremely impressive feat, gaining the ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ award at the Counties Manukau Sports Awards Ceremony.
Tanya was the most worthy recipient of this award, training for over 16 hours a week, varying from early morning strength training and conditioning sessions to spending evenings at throwing and fitness trainings. With barely any time to spare during the weekdays, she tops this all off with either competitions during the weekend or more training sessions.
Only finding out she was nominated a few days before the night of the ceremony, it took a while for the whole idea to dawn on her. With anxiety taking over, wondering who the other nominees were for both Junior Coach of the Year and the Under 16 Sportswoman of the Year, Tanya had an Oscars-type moment, with the presenter initially calling out the wrong name and, realising their mistake, creating a moment of slight awkwardness.
Tanya walked slowly to the stage, not fully realising what she had just achieved. With this amazing success, Tanya was also gifted a brand-new javelin to replace the old, worn out one she had been using, by her undoubtedly proud coach.
And this is just the beginning for this superstar. Her short-term goal for this year is to conquer the 40 metre barrier that has been evading her due to the change in her technique one month ago.
Her long-term goal is to be short-listed for the Junior Commonwealth Games in the Bahamas later this year, where she hopes to compete in her first ever international competition. Here, she would be able to fulfil her childhood dream of wearing the silver fern and representing New Zealand through her sport.
Martina Kleis
