Ngā Tohu Kahurangi 2022

Blues Awards 2022

The Blues Awards are part of a tradition from England. The blue colours of Oxford and Cambridge Universities came to symbolise sporting excellence.

While a Blues Award has traditionally been a sporting accolade, there are now four categories of the award at the University of Auckland:

Sports
Arts and Cultural
Service and Leadership
Innovation

This year, 113 Blues and nine major awards were presented to winners at the long-awaited Blues dinner. It was the first one since 2019 and, what can we say, it was the best one yet. Find out below who in the University community walked away with the major awards this year.

Major Award Winners

Award for the Most Meritorious Innovation

Alonzo Nieves

Alonzo co-founded eVouch, a B2B SaaS company focused on helping e-commerce brands generate sales through word of mouth. eVouch’s word-of-mouth solutions have enabled access to a new, cheaper and more effective marketing channel. eVouch was featured as a case study for the global Shopify App Challenge 2021, and Alonzo’s team have now partnered with over 500 merchants. These successes have seen them recently raising capital in both New Zealand and the United States.

Award for the Most Outstanding Contribution (Service and Leadership)

Nandini Singh

Nandini is the co-founder of Kairos (formerly known as The Next Step), a non-profit educational programme that aims to empower low-decile students to enter university education. Kairos is a multi-step programme consisting of workshops and a mentorship programme that equips students with the support they need to successfully transition into university education. 

Most Meritorious Performance (Arts and Cultural)

Thomas Swinburn

Thomas is one of three winners of the International Balint Federation Ascona Prize, an international essay writing competition for medical students. The competition encourages participants to critically reflect on experiences of the student-patient relationship and the implications for medical training. 

Major Māori Award

Emma Ormsby 

Emma is an emerging Māori artist. She is passionate about art in public spaces, having led a 60-metre mural project that is brightening up the centre of Takapuna. The project derives from community workshops Emma delivered to local schools, and consists of drawings by more than 50 students from nine schools. 

Pasifika Major Award

Ruby Macomber

Ruby is a published and award-winning poet, essayist and creative writing facilitator. Ruby runs workshops in correctional facilities, creating more equitable access to creative writing. Her work has gained national recognition and aims to amplify the experiences of Moana-Oceania storytelling. 

Sportsman of the Year and Award for the Most Meritorious Performance (Sport)

Frazer Tavener

Frazer is one of New Zealand’s elite-level divers and placed 10th at FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. He made the finals in both men’s and mixed 3-metre synchronised springboard competitions. Frazer also represented New Zealand at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Sportswoman of the Year and Most Meritorious Performance (Sport)

Theresa Fitzpatrick

Theresa is part of the New Zealand women’s rugby sevens team, which placed first and second at two World Sevens series tournaments in 2022. Theresa was also a member of the team that won the Oceania Sevens tournament in New Zealand. Theresa and her team then went on to win a bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. 

Para-athlete Sportsperson of the Year Award

Anna Steven

Anna represented New Zealand in athletics at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, where she set a new T64 200m Oceania area record in her heat. This qualified her for the T64 200m final, where she placed eighth. 

See the full list of winners in for the 2022 Blues Awards here.