Official of the Year An award acknowledging any person over the age of 18 who acts as an umpire, referee or judge.
Mark Harris
Rebecca Mahoney
Alistair Payne
Peter Sigvertsen
ATHLETICS
RUGBY
RUGBY
HOCKEY
Mark became an A Grade Athletics track official in 2020, specialising in the photo finish and chief judge roles. He is recognised as one of the top three in New Zealand with this technical aspect of photo finish. Mark has officiated at numerous national events in photo finish, including NZ Secondary School and North Island Secondary School Championships, as well as prestigious meets such as the Potts Classic, Cooks Classic, Porritt Classic, and Capital Classic. As well as major events, he officiates at local school athletics meets and other Wairarapa events.
In 2019, Rebecca became the first woman to control a Ranfurly Shield challenge when she had the whistle for the Otago defence against North Otago in Oamaru. She followed that up by being the first woman to officiate a Mitre 10 Cup game in the Hawke’s Bay v Southland game in Napier. In 2020, Rebecca was named on the Assistant Referees panel for the Super Rugby Championship, only for the season to fall victim to the covid-19 pandemic. Rebecca retired from first class refereeing in early 2021 to pursue business interests.
In 2020, Alistair refereed his sixth consecutive premier club rugby final, controlling a tense match, won by Marist 39-37 with a last minute penalty over Greytown. Alistair’s consistent form led to a return to first class rugby, for the first time in five years, for the truncated lower North Island Heartland series. He was in the middle for the inaugural match for the Lochore-Meads Scroll played between Wairarapa-Bush and King Country. That was followed by the Wai-Bush v Horowhenua-Kapiti game, his 16th first-class game.
Peter is Hockey Wairarapa’s leading umpire. He regularly controls Wellington premier men’s and women’s games, as well as officiating in local league games. On numerous days Pete will umpire two Wellington premier games back to back, with only minutes between the two. Pete’s consistency led to him umpiring at the 2019 National Association tournament in Tauranga, where he performed with distinction. He was again appointed to the 2020 National Association tournament, only for it to be cancelled because of covid-19.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL FINALISTS FOR
OFFICIAL OF THE YEAR WWW.MSTN.GOVT.NZ @MastertonDC
WAIRARAPA TIMES-AGE SPORTS AWARDS 2020-2021 | 19
