They might be wearing the silver fern, but there will be no shortage of blue and gold running through the veins of the New Zealand para-athletes at the Rio Paralympics in September.
Four of the six athletes named at a ceremony at the Caledonian Ground yesterday are based in Otago, as is coach Raylene Bates.
Holly Robinson (London 2012) and Jess Hamill (Beijing 2008) are both past Paralympians and will be joined by fellow Otago athletes Rory McSweeney and Anna Grimaldi in the six-strong team.
Runners William Stedman (16) and Liam Malone (22) make up the remainder of the squad.
Bates said the effort to have four Otago athletes selected for the Games was a reflection on the athletes themselves, the coaches and the support of Athletics Otago, Athletics New Zealand and High Performance Sport New Zealand.
"It's hugely satisfying,'' she said.
"It's four years of hard work and to double our team size and to have four from Otago is amazing.
``If you put it in perspective, Holly Robinson is our only London survivor - she threw 28m and finished seventh in London and she's now ranked No1 in the world and has thrown 40-odd metres. That's the progress they've all made - they've committed to the programme, they've progressed and this is the end result.''
The selection capped off four years of hard work for javelin thrower McSweeney (31), who missed out on selection for the London Paralympics despite qualifying.
"I turned my focus to Rio then, basically,'' he said.
"There's been a couple of world champs in that time, and I've developed as an athlete in those four years so it's special to be named today after missing out four years ago.''
Robinson (21), who is ranked No1 in the world in the women's F46 javelin category, will go to Rio with the experience of London under her belt.
"I was really young in London so it was all over my head,'' she said.
"Rio, for me, is all about performances - it's really exciting. I had a really good season, and finished off No1 in the world. I'm really excited with where I'm at and where I wanted to finish off at this point in time.''
Robinson's experience has been a big bonus for Grimaldi (19) who finished third in the women's T47 long jump at the world championships last year.
"It's really awesome to have people, especially Jess and Holly, to have as kind of a mentor,'' Grimaldi said.
"They know what it's like and just to ask them questions and stuff. It's awesome to have that insider knowledge.
Grimaldi had realistic expectations when she took up athletics three years ago, and thought maybe Tokyo in 2020 was a possibility.
"I only started athletics 2½ years ago and when I started I thought 'no-one makes the paralympics in 2½ years','' she said.
"But to have medalled in world champs then to qualify for the first ever Paralympics I'm eligible for, I can't even put it into words to describe how good I feel.''
Hamill (25), who competed in the shot put at Beijing in 2008 and was a silver medallist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, said she was just happy to be named after returning to the sport two years ago.
"I'm really excited and it's really great to make it all official,'' she said.
"I missed competing and I missed the athlete life and I had that passion to get back again so I'm really happy to be back.''
