The annual Blues and Golds awards were held last week, honouring some of our fellow students doing great things in the sporting and cultural spheres. A joint event held between OUSA and the University saw the Business School decked out to the nines for the awards ceremony. Here’s what some Otago tauira have been doing beyond the uni grind.
Taking out Sportsperson of the Year was physio student Alexa Duff with an impressive resume of sporting successes. Alexa is a member of the Southern Hoiho for basketball, and also represented Aotearoa in 3x3 at the FISU World University Games in Germany. On top of that, Alexa also is a javelin thrower, snagging a gold medal at the Dame Yvette Williams
Memorial Meet and Otago championships, and silver at the NZ Track and Field Championships. Winning seven medals since 2023, and was a finalist for Junior Sportswoman of the Year at the Otago Sports Awards – a deserved, multi-skilled winner.
The award for Māori Sportsperson of the Year went to Ged Wall (Te Rarawa and Te Aupōuri), for rowing. Ged is a 4th year medical student, who recently picked up three medals at the NZ University Rowing Championships. Scoring gold for varsity singles and silvers in varsity doubles and championships, all on top of the crazy med workload. If that wasn’t enough, Ged also won a gold medal at the New Zealand Rowing Championships.
For clubs, the Otago Consulting Club took out society of the year, and a highly commended award was given to the Otago Biochemistry & Genetics Students Association. Women in Business Otago were also given a special mention award – shoutout to them.
The Otago University Japanese Students’ Association is your Cultural Society of the Year, with highly commended going to the Indian Students’ Association. A special mention award was given to the Otago Iranian Society. Ka pai for all the cool events you’ve thrown throughout the year.
Back to the sporting world, the Otago University Hockey Club was awarded Sports Club of the Year. Highly commended went to the Otago University Canoe Club, and a special mention award was given to the Otago Campus Badminton Club. Rowers snagged a couple awards on the night, with Ted Mayne awarded highly commended for Sportsperson of the Year, and Jamie McKenzie for Coach of the Year.
Another big ticket award of the night was the Outstanding Member of the University of Otago Community, awarded to Critic Te Ārohi’s own Hanna Varrs. As Editor, Hanna has balanced a full-time Law and Management degree, on top of running an 101-year old magazine. No easy feat to do either of those things, and answer all the letters to the Editor.
OUSA President Daniel Leamy said that “every year I’m blown away by the passion our tauira bring to sport, culture, academia, and service, and these awards recognise the impact they have both on campus and beyond.” In total, 14 major awards, 14 Silver Service, 37 Blues and 6 Golds were handed out at the ceremony. Turns out there’s a lot of locked in tauira hiding within our very own campus.
Check out the OUSA website to see the full list of winners – Critic Te Ārohi wishes we had the space on the page to shout out each of you individually. A massive congratulations to everyone who keeps their clubs ticking along, or somehow manages to balance national excellence at their art or sport, on top of those pesky essays to write.
