Fairweather (Ngai Tahu) was named sportsperson of the year at the Māori Sports Awards in Mount Maunganui on Saturday night.
It has been a huge year for the 19-year-old.
Her most recent achievement was breaking the world cup series record for the women’s 400m freestyle in Berlin. She beat the previous record by 3sec with a swim of 4min 1.09sec.
Fairweather also grabbed a personal best and a bronze medal at the world championships in the 400m freestyle, making her the fifth woman to go below 4min.
She holds the New Zealand open records for women’s 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle and the women’s 4x50m relay and 4x200m relay, and is on track to swim at the Paris Olympics in less than a year.
Winners in 10 categories were announced at the Maori awards, and all finalists were in contention for the supreme award, the Albie Pryor Memorial Māori sportsperson of the year.
Fairweather was also named junior sportswoman of the year, while fellow swimmer Cameron Leslie was named para athlete of the year
Penrith Panthers and Kiwis prop James Fisher-Harris was named senior sportsman of the year, and kayaking great Lisa Carrington won the women’s award.
Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan (coach), the Maori women’s fours bowlers (team), Auckland bowler Davey Motu (junior sportsman) and rugby referee Ben O’Keeffe (umpire/referee) won the other major awards.
— Staff reporter
