Chantelle and Jaryn Tainui were both chosen for the 6-a-side indoor netball national tournament held in Auckland on 10 March.
Brother and sister, Jaryn and Chantelle both play for the Hornby Titans Silver team, the club they represented at the national tournament held at Action Indoor Sports in Manukau.
Chantelle commented ”Our team went up there as a completely new team, we had only been training together since the beginning of the year. Most of the teams up there competing have been playing together for years, so we had the disadvantage of being new – the competition up there was really good and quite hard, but we certainly stepped up.”
Most of the North Island teams were predominately from Auckland and Wellington, where 6-a-side netball is the main indoor sport. This differs from Christchurch where the main indoor sport we play down here is 7-a-side netball.
Our coach and one of our team members were interviewed by Māori Television who were wanting to know how well sport was doing down in Christchurch following the earthquakes. They also filmed us warming up and some of our game. Our coach is working towards having the national tournament hosted here in Christchurch.
The weekend was such an amazing experience and I made some really good memories. I have improved my netball skills so much and learnt a lot. I went up there with a little bit of doubt as this was my first ever competition, but came back feeling really good with what I had learnt personally and as a team. I cannot wait to go to Wellington next year for the next nationals.
As for Jaryn, he had already been to nationals before with 7-a-side. He really enjoyed himself and can’t wait to go back again. He played well and the coach said that this was his trial and he will be in the top team (the black team) at nationals next year.
Hornby Titans Silver team.
Chantelle Tainui shooting a goal.