21 Feb 2011

Teenage woolhandler cleaning up titles

1:45 pm on 21 February 2011

A Gisborne teenager is attracting a lot of attention in wool circles after winning his second major woolhandling competition in a week.

Joel Henare won the Southern Shears open woolhandling title in Gore on Sunday, after winning a record fourth straight New Zealand Woolhandler of the Year title at the Otago championships in Balclutha.

The 19-year-old is now a favourite to win the Golden Shears open woolhandling competition in Masterton next month.

In other competition results from the weekend, Napier shearer John Kirkpatrick continued his domination of the national shearing season with a double at the Southern Shears in Gore, winning the South Island Shearer of the Year and Southern Shears open finals.

Kirkpatrick has now won 11 of the 15 open shearing finals he has contested this season.

And world-record-breaking Far North shearer Rowland Smith successfully defended his Counties Shears open title at Pukekohe.