Friday, 7 February 2025 | Term 1 | Week

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Mahurangi College Student Wins Gold at Underwater Hockey World Championships

Underwater Hockey continues to be a strong feature at Mahurangi College.  After placing first at the U18 National Championships in 2014, year 13 student Forrest Axford, was selected to compete for the U19 New Zealand men’s team at the CMAS Underwater Hockey World Championships in Barcelona.  After months of fundraising, Forrest headed for Spain on the 1 August via Singapore.  The spectacular opening ceremony, held at the Castellon Olympic Stadium, was a precursor of the successes to come.

Their first day of competing, resulted in a resounding 17-0 win against Canada, and a 10-0 win against Italy.  Back to back games on day two, resulted in a 3-0 win against Great Britain, and a 6-0 win against Columbia.  The team went on to cement their place in the quarter finals with another massive 17 point win, this time over Italy.  The semi-finals against Columbia, saw NZ concede their first goal, winning 5-1, leading them into the final where they won gold after a strong 6-1 victory against France.

“Underwater Hockey is a sport like no other and to have this opportunity to represent my country at the World Champs is especially exciting.  Over the past few years, I have had so many people coach, manage, support and encourage me and I really want to say thank you to each and every one of them, as I feel that they have been vital to my success.  The person who has been the biggest influence on my underwater hockey career, has been my Dad!  Everything that we have achieved at Mahurangi College could not have been done without him.  His guidance and support has been a driving factor to my success.”  

Head coach, Terry Axford, has coached multiple New Zealand Representative teams, alongside Mahurangi College’s very successful, Junior and Senior teams.

David Macleod, Principal of Mahurangi College adds, “we are all incredibly proud of, not only what Forrest has achieved, but also his generosity and commitment to giving back to the sport.  He is a fine role model, and we feel very honored to have been a part of his amazing journey.”

Despite the huge time commitments of training, Forrest volunteers his time to coach the Mahurangi College Junior Team, whose girls’ team have just qualified to compete at the 2015 Nationals, being held later in the year.

Forrest has documented his journey on Facebook at Forrest Axford Worlds Journey.