The 2019 Blind Sport New Zealand (BSNZ) Sport Awards were celebrated at Auckland's Grand Millennium in mid-November.
“The BSNZ’s Sport Awards is a night to celebrate the incredible achievements within blind and low vision sport community,” said Casey Flint, BSNZ’s acting national manager. “This includes celebrating not only some of our top athletes but the coaches, leaders and volunteers that helped to get them get there.”
The 2019 Supreme Award winners were tandem cyclists Emma Foy and Hannah van Kampen, who also received the Team of the Year Award. Foy is the stoker (sits at the back of the tandem) and van Kampen her sighted pilot.
After riding together for less than a year, the duo won gold and the World Championship title in the Women’s 3km individual pursuit and placed third in the women’s 1km time trial in the Netherlands in March. In September, they went on to win gold and the World Championship title in the individual road race and silver in the time trial.
“This is an incredible achievement at both a track and road world championship as typically para-cycling athletes will target either sprint events or endurance events,” said Kieran Wall, a judging panel BSNZ board member.
