Class of 2013: Where are they now?

Our former Fast Lane series highlighted some of the rising stars of Otago sport. Ten years on, sports editor Hayden Meikle looks at what became of the kids from 2013.

Christina Ashton

Then: The 15-year-old Queen’s High School pupil was showing her versatility by excelling in three different sports. She was the New Zealand secondary schools junior girls 80m hurdle champion, won an artistic excellence award at the national aerobics championships and had a bunch of ribbons from equestrian events.

Now: Ashton lives in Christchurch, where she works in the Farmlands support office. Her new passion is CrossFit. She recently qualified top of the leaderboard for elite women for the New Zealand championships in Auckland later this year. She was a rookie member of her gym’s elite team who were named fittest in New Zealand last year.

 

Dylan Edwards

Then: The 13-year-old King’s High School pupil was following in the footsteps of his father, Mark, a national yachting champion. Dylan had already competed in a national regatta, and had aspirations to sail at the world championships and Olympics.

Now: Edwards lives in Christchurch, where he works as an environmental engineer. He still enjoys being on the water, but these days has a surfboard underneath him. He still follows sailing, especially as some of the people he used to race are now professional sailors. He spent the last summer holidays on the family sailing boat in the Marlborough Sounds, reliving his racing days there.

 

Paul Wright

Then: The 15-year-old Mt Aspiring College pupil had finished third in the open men’s section of the Contact Epic mountainbike series, and also had a top-10 finish at the Oceania championships.

Now: Wright continued to compete in mountainbiking at a high level for several years before heading to medical school in the United States, his parents’ home country. Now he might be better known as the brother of biathlon prodigy Campbell Wright, who competed for New Zealand at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing but has switched allegiance to the US.

 

Courtney Martin playing for Alhambra-Union in 2013.

Courtney Martin

Then: The 16-year-old East Otago High School pupil was impressing in two different sports. She was a key member of the Alhambra-Union rugby team that won the Dunedin premier title, and she won silver in the junior girls hammer at the New Zealand secondary schools athletics championships. Martin, coached by the great Raylene Bates, also competed in shot put and discus.

Now: Martin lives in Australia’s Northern Territory, where she is head stockwoman on a large cattle station. She still enjoys sport, but there are challenges given the remote location. She competes in "campdrafting" on the station horses, and would be playing rugby if she could. Her career highlight was playing for the Otago Spirit.

 

Thomas Johnson

Then: The 16-year-old Kaikorai Valley College pupil was playing pretty much everything. He had been picked for the New Zealand under-17 touch squad, made the South Island under-17 rugby league team, and dabbled in rugby, volleyball and basketball. His dream was to play in the NRL.

Now: Johnson still lives in Dunedin and is in the middle of a building apprenticeship. He is still active in a lot of sport, but happy to get his fix at club and social levels. The highlight of his career was winning back-to-back South Otago premier club rugby titles with Clutha Valley.

 

Fynn Thompson

Then: The 17-year-old Wakatipu High School pupil had finished sixth at the world age-group triathlon championships and second in the national elite under-19 race.

Now: Thompson takes some lovely photos on Instagram — that is as close as we have got to tracking him down. He recently spent 10 days "bikepacking" the Hope1000 route across Switzerland. "At 1000k and 30,000m of climbing, she was an absolute doozy of a ride but a jolly good old adventure," he posted.

 

Sam Bremer in 2013

Sam Bremer

Then: The 18-year-old Kavanagh College pupil had battled through injury to win the New Zealand club 5000m title and win silver in the under-20 race at the New Zealand cross-country championships.

Now: Bremer lives in Cambridge, where he works for High Performance Sport New Zealand providing services for Cycling New Zealand as a performance and technique analyst. He still jogs almost every day and tries to race when he is not injured. The highlight of his sporting career was placing second in the senior men’s 1500m at the national championships in 2017. He also enjoyed spending a summer in Europe travelling and racing with good friends Oli Chignell and Chris Pilone.

 

 

 

 

Grace Schrader and Hannah Perkins

Then: The St Hilda’s pupils were showing great promise in weightlifting. Schrader was the New Zealand schools 69kg champion, and Perkins was third in the 59kg class. The farm girls were also keen rugby players.

Now: Both women are mothers. Perkins lives in Brighton and is a nurse, and Schrader lives in Kalgoorlie and owns a geological processing business. Perkins suffered rotator cuff injuries and did not carry on with weightlifting after school. Schrader carried on lifting in her first year at university before "partying and other activities" took priority. Schrader’s proudest sporting moment did not involve weights but was finishing second at the national championships with the Otago under-21 touch team.

Caitlin Deans

Then: The 13-year-old Columba College pupil was making a splash in swimming. She had broken two New Zealand short-course records and won two national schools titles.

Now: Deans is one of the elite members of the New Zealand swimming squad. She finished 16th in the 1500m at the world championships in Japan recently, after placing 13th last year. She is studying for a bachelor of science in physiology and teaching part-time at the University of Otago.

Devon Familton

Then: The 13-year-old Columba College pupil was spending most of her spare time in the water. She was a nationally ranked surf-lifesaver and represented Otago in swimming, and played a bit of netball and hockey too.

Now: We have not been able to track Familton down. LinkedIn suggests she previously worked as a lifeguard at Moana Pool and at the Department of Corrections in Wellington.

hayden.meikle@odt.co.nz

 

 

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