Matthew Clough and his silver medal. Photo supplied.Ashburton multisport athlete Matthew Clough has already won a silver and is eyeing up a gold today at the ITU Multisport World Championships Festival in Denmark.

Clough, 17, lined up for his first shot at world glory in the 18-19 section of the world cross tri event on Tuesday and won silver, finishing just 21 seconds behind the winner, fellow Kiwi Brendon Bergs.

Bergs crossed the line in 45.17 minutes, while Clough finished in 45.38 minutes, with a big gap of almost 10 minutes back to Germany’s Bryam Rex in third.

“I left every single bit of me out on the course today, stumbling over the finish line,” Clough posted on Facebook after the race.

While happy to have a silver in his pocket, that isn’t the end of it for Clough. He still has another big goal he wants to achieve in Denmark.

Clough is also set to line up at the starting line for the aquathlon – a 1km open water swim and a 5km run – today. While Tuesday was his first time eligible to enter the cross tri – a 1km open water swim, a 28km mountain bike ride and a 10km run – Clough is no stranger to aquathlons.

He’s been to the world championships the past two years running for aquathlon, and won bronze in his first attempt and silver in his second.

Before leaving for Denmark, Clough said there was only one way to go from a bronze and a silver, and that was to win gold.

Clough will be one of 15 athletes lining up in the 16-19 age group in the aquathlon race later today Denmark time.

The trip to Denmark was the start of a big few months for Clough, who was also set to head to Maui, Hawaii, in October for the World Xterra Championships.

Before that he was set to attend Xterra Townsville in Australia to help him acclimatise to the warmer conditions.

Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 11 July 2018

Nicole Purdom is headed for great things on the rugby paddock – but for which country? Photo supplied.What was meant to be a few months’ playing rugby and getting life experience in Ireland has left Nicole Purdom with a massive decision to make.

Purdom, 21, had played rugby since she was five years old and the dream had always been to play for the Black Ferns.

But this week the Ashburton woman will head back to Ireland knowing that if all goes well, she has every chance of running out on to the paddock for Ireland in the next Women’s Rugby World Cup.

“But the moment I play for Ireland, I can’t play for New Zealand,” Purdom said.

If she pulled on the green jersey of Ireland, she’d be kissing goodbye to any hope she had of one day playing for the country she’d always call home and it was a decision Purdom wouldn’t be making lightly.

A firm fixture in the Canterbury women’s side in recent seasons, the number eight’s last game in New Zealand was the 2017 Farah Palmer Cup women’s provincial final, where Canterbury claimed their first national title.

A week later, Purdom was on a plane bound for Ireland for what she thought would only be an eight-month visit to play some rugby and get a taste of what the rest of the world was about.

“I left the week after I graduated from uni and I just went for the life experience, because I always said I wanted to go somewhere overseas and play rugby,” Purdom said.

She had options throughout Europe, but many clubs wanted her there earlier than she could manage.

She wanted to finish her sport coaching and management degree at university first, so Ireland was the option that suited her the best, and it turned out to have been the right move.

There she played for the Suttonians club in Dublin and Purdom helped to take them from cellar-dwellers, to a team that was beating teams they weren’t expected to.

“It was amazing, because our team was so bad when I first got there, and by the end of it we had won the competition,” Purdom said.

A young team of players no older than 22, Suttonians earned themselves promotion to division one.

“The girls just needed someone to motivate them and lead them on the field.

“They didn’t have that leader on the field before I got there and I talk a lot on the field so I basically just told them where to go,” Purdom said.

From there she was asked to play for Leinster – the top Irish side and the equivalent of playing for Canterbury in New Zealand – so after a five-week break in New Zealand, she was this week heading back to start training with the side ahead of their provincial competition starting in September.

Leinster were paying for her to head back over and she’d also been short-listed for a job as the club’s community development officer.

Last year Purdom was an intern at the Canterbury Rugby Football Union, working as a women’s rugby development officer.

Women’s rugby was booming in Ireland, something that was in part due to the last women’s world cup being held in Ireland.

“It’s crazy. Here in New Zealand there’s one division with eight teams, whereas in Ireland there’s five divisions with like at least 10 teams in each division,” Purdom said.

The numbers were bigger, but the quality of women’s rugby in New Zealand was higher.

The only way to bring that level up in Ireland was by attracting better coaches and better players, so Ireland appeared keen to keep hold of Purdom.

She had already been in talks with the Irish women’s coach, Kiwi Adam Griggs, who wanted her to be involved with training and camps with the national side with an eye to the next women’s world cup.

While Purdom had Irish roots, they were too far back for her to qualify to play for Ireland straight away, so she’d have to play three years in Ireland in order to qualify.

“There’s definitely going to be a point later on in my life where I’m going to have to decide where I want to settle,” she said.

New Zealand would always be home, but at the moment, Ireland was where the best opportunities were on offer.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 10 July 2018

Harriet Stock and Alex Jones. Photo supplied.It will be a big day tomorrow for Ashburton College students Harriet Stock and Alex Jones, as they compete in the national final for the New Zealand Young Farmers TeenAg competition.

Held in conjunction with the Young Farmer of the Year grand final, which this year is being held in Invercargill, the TeenAg final brings together winners and placegetters from regional competitions held all around the country.

It’s the first time Harriet and Alex have reached the national final, and they’ve been working hard recently to give themselves the best possible chance of success in Invercargill.

Both of them are from farms, Alex living on a sheep, crop and winter grazing operation near Ealing, and Harriet a dairy farm near Hinds.

They said that a farming background was a definite advantage, although they each have different strengths.

Alex said he was better at the physical aspects of the competition, while Harriet is stronger at the numerical and theory side.

Although they are looking forward to the experience, the pair are also nervous as they don’t know exactly what to expect.

What they do know is they will have to complete a one hour exam and give a speech before undertaking a series of seven modules that will test their knowledge and expertise in a wide range of areas including nutrient retention against leaching, health and safety, tractor driving, management practices that influence water quality, sheep judging and meat and wool breeds.

They will also have to perform two tasks on a farmlet.

The top five teams will then go into a “face-off” quiz, which will be made up of agriculture and general knowledge questions.

Also being held in Invercargill tomorrow is the AgriKidsNZ national final.

A team from Mt Somers Springburn School, made up of Lachlan Rooney, Ruby Giera and Annabel Harmer, and another from Ashburton Intermediate School, featuring Tim Connelly-Whyte, Austin Watson and Henry Gray, both qualified for the final.

By Colin Williscroft © The Ashburton Guardian - 6 July 2018