Yesterday, the New Zealand Under 18 boys made history and won for the first time the Youth Oceania Championships.
The team, led by Coach Tim Rayner and Coach Jack Gallagher (Vikings), went undefeated in the competition and were very dominant in each game.
In the team were four Vikings players, Paul Ireland, Miguel Aizpuru, Angus Hazelton and Will O’Connor, who all provided crucial for the team on the way to the title.
Congratulations to the team, the coaches and all the supporters who helped in achieving this massive milestone for New Zealand Handball.
At the same time, the Junior Oceania Championship happened at the same venue.
In the junior competition, the New Zealand team played an excellent tournament but fell just outside of the medal ranks and brought home a 4th place. The team was coached by Viking’s Luke Ireland and had five Vikings players in the line-up – Alex Bickers, Riley Grice, Jared Peterson, Cassius Papera-Lewin and PJ Garner.
The team managed to win 2 out of the 5 games with close defeats to the winner (Australia) and 2nd placed team (Tahiti). Well Done boys!
[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”1″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails” override_thumbnail_settings=”0″ thumbnail_width=”240″ thumbnail_height=”160″ thumbnail_crop=”1″ images_per_page=”20″ number_of_columns=”0″ ajax_pagination=”0″ show_all_in_lightbox=”0″ use_imagebrowser_effect=”0″ show_slideshow_link=”1″ slideshow_link_text=”[Show slideshow]” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]
