Roller hockey: Whanganui win NZ senior men's title for first time in more than 30 years
Whanganui came away from hosting the 2019 National Roller Hockey Championships at the weekend with three New Zealand titles, including the prestigious senior men's trophy.
Teams from throughout the country descended on the Jubilee Stadium over the weekend to contest four divisions - senior men division one and division two, women's division and under-13.
Whanganui won the senior men division one, the women's title and finished first and second in the under-13 grade. Papatoetoe won the division two men's title.
In all 25 teams contested the four grades with the senior men's division one contest attracting teams from New Plymouth, Papatoetoe, Palmerston North and two from Whanganui. Wellington pulled out of the tournament late in the piece.
Whanganui senior men's division one captain Dean Fitness, fresh from competing at the World Championships in Spain with team mate Jimi Blinkhorne, said it was the first time a Whanganui senior men's side had won the national title since 1988.
"We beat Papatoetoe 7-2 in the final after they beat us 2-1 in the last game of round robin," Fitness said.
"Whanganui also won the women's title and two of our under-13 teams played off in the final of that grade, so it was a pretty successful nationals for us."
Whanganui had invited four Australian players to join the two premier senior men's sides the River City fielded.
The winning Whanganui senior side included Fitness and Blinkhorne alongside Jerome Allen, Carlin Barry, Cody Lockett, Bret Palamountain and Australian brothers Max and Jay Cook. Whanganui player Mitchell Lockett had also been named in the team, but was forced out of the tournament by a broken shin bone suffered in a beach buggy accident a week earlier.
The nationals marked the end of the roller hockey season, although there is one final tournament planned for November in Hawke's Bay and if that goes ahead, Whanganui will send teams, Fitness said.
Iain Hyndman
Whanganui Chronicle 2/10/19