A top week of sports competition with the NZCT AIMS Games is nearly finished, with officials, supporters and teams praising the organisers for a great tournament.

Final games taking place on Friday are football 10.30am, waterpolo 11.30am, netball 12pm and hockey 2.40pm, with all sports codes holding their own medals ceremonies.

Coaches, managers and players are describing the NZCT AIMS Games tournament as an excellent week of competition with a great spirit of friendly rivalry as the annual sports competition comes to a close.

High praise

Kaiapoi North School year 7 and 8 teacher Tania Reid, who had teams competing in basketball and netball, is among those praising the intermediate and middle schools competition, saying 'the whole tournament has been amazing – well worth the $28,000 fundraised to bring the teams up”.

Tania gave 'a huge thank you to the Mount and Tauranga – it's been such a great week”. The team leaves on Friday, squeezing in a fun trip to Rainbow Springs amusement park in Auckland before flying back to Christchurch.

Australian feedback

Andrew Ferguson from Knox School in Melbourne – one of two Australian schools competing for the first time this year - has been 'very impressed” with the NZCT AIMS GAMES. Andrew says 'the week has been so smoothly organised, and the competition varied.

'It's great to bring the teams over here because we don't have this sort of school tournament in Victoria. The Knox School team is made up of students who were keen to come but haven't played in a school team together. The first time they played together was when we got here!”

Knox School basketball player and U14 Victoria basketball team member Natalie Kingsmith says 'the games were really fun, especially the Opening Ceremony. I'd love to come back next year”.

Basketball

Tournament basketball coordinator Andy Mackay was delighted to welcome two New Zealand Breakers development coaches to the games this year to present a coaching clinic on Thursday morning to 30 basketball coaches.

Breakers players Ang Perrot-Hunt and Dave Mackay passed on their knowledge and resources for each coach that attended, and donated 6 basketballs per coach. Basketball BOP added to this by presenting each coach with a coach's board.

Gymnastics

Tournament gymnastics coordinator Erica Third was still buzzing from the group performance night held on Wednesday night at the Bethlehem College Performing Arts Centre. The numbers had increased from 20 teams last year to 36 in 2012. She says the NZCT AIMS Games is a great opportunity for many of the gymnasts to compete at a high level in preparation for the national championships later this year.

Badminton

Badminton finished on Thursday after a total of 244 matches played over 4 days! Top seeds Sally Fu and Jasmine Xue won the gold in the girls' doubles over the second seeds Rebecca Ye and Nuwandi Palmada. The upset of the day was the unseeded pairing of Jessica Chen and Emma Wu from Murrays Bay Intermediate who took out the Bronze medal.

Netball

The netball umpires got together on Thursday afternoon for a friendly game with lots of laughter from both sides. The top eight teams competing in Friday's finals are Rotorua, Feilding, Murrays Bay, Maeroa, Northcross, Hutt, Te Puke and Holy Cross schools. Netball coordinator Jill Weldon says one of the most exciting games of the day was between Fielding and Te Puke – with Fielding taking the win in extra time. Finals begin at Blake Park at noon on Friday.

Football

Thursday delivered an exciting day of football at Blake Park with a high standard of play. Murrays Bay booked its final spot after overcoming John Paul College of Rotorua in the semi-finals, whilst in the other semi Glen Eden had a hard fought win over a well organised Blockhouse Bay. Both teams are now looking forward to Friday's final, which kicks off at 10.30am.

In the Girls Draw the final will be contested by Hamilton's Peachgrove and St Cuthberts's from Auckland, with the game kicking off at 10.00am. The play-off for third and fourth place between Blockhouse Bay and Glen Eden kicks off at 8.30am. Football tournament coordinator Peter Smith says highlight of the day must go to Callum McCowatt of Albany who scored a new AIMS record of 3 seconds, giving his team an early lead in the 3-1 win over Balmoral.

Tennis

Play-offs for the Tennis started on this morning with great conditions for the finals and 3rd/4th playoffs. ????

Boys top seed Macsen Sisam from Kristin dominated the finals, dropping just one game in the whole tournament to win his final in around 35 minutes 6/1, 6/0 against Liam Stoica from Bucklands Beach. Daniel Andonov from Fairfield beat Hone Collier from Waiomio 6/3, 6/3, to take out third place.

Year 7 pupil Macsen, who has been in tennis coaching since he was five, demonstrated his talent in a tightly fought doubles final with Hector Fleming. The Kristin pair had a cracker match against 2nd seeds Bucklands Beach Liam Stoica and Andrew Hislop, but eventually fell short in a fierce tie-breaker with the Buckland boys winning

3/6, 7/6, 10/5. Murrays Bay Bailey Sutton and Matthew Saunders beat local Bethlehem College boys Henry Nam and Benjamin Jones 6/3, 6/3 for 3rd place.

Macsen follows his tournament success flying out to Barcelona, Spain, on Friday for six weeks at a tennis academy – where he has trained twice before to build on his preference for clay, with plans to return again next year. Tournament organiser Karen Hampton is picking Macsen as an interesting talent to look out for in 'six or seven years”.

The girls final was won by top seed Nina Paripovich from Fairfield over Louise Waite of Highlands winning 6/1,6/0. Third place was taken by Holly Matson from Heaton beating Lily Bray from Cobham 6/2, 6/2.

The girls doubles were won Holly Matson and Kirsten Swindell from Heaton, beating Dominique Matich-Reynolds and Micheala Coe from Murrays Bay 6/4, 6/4. Tauranga Intermediate's Kalais Going and Julia Newman took third place in a very close match, beating Charlotte Williams and Sarah Munn from Ross Intermediate in the super tie breakers 4/6,6/4 16-14.

Coaches and managers meeting

NZCT AIMS Games Tournament Director Vicki Semple says the coaches and managers evening held on a Wednesday evening was another high point for many – with top guest speakers New Zealand Rowing's high performance coach Calvin Ferguson and Warriors player Jerome Ropati.

'It was great having speakers from both sides of the line – a coaches and players perspective which was well received by those that attended”.

While the coaches and managers meeting was taking place in the Tauranga Intermediate School staff room, the competitors disco was held in the school hall.

Final games today take place on Friday – with the football 10.30am, Waterpolo 11.30am, Netball 12pm and Hockey 2.40pm, with all sports codes holding their own medals ceremonies.

Programme – Friday 14 September 2012

• Football
  Blake Park, Maunganui Road, Mt Maunganui – Finals (9.00am to 12.00pm)
• Hockey
  Tauranga Hockey Centre, Blake Park, Mt Maunganui – Finals (8.00am to 3.00pm)
• Netball
  Harbourside Netball Centre, Blake Park, Mt Maunganui – Finals (9.00am to 2.00pm)
• Water Polo
  Baywave Aquatic Centre, Cnr Girven & Gloucester Rd, Mt Maunganui – Finals (8.00am to 12.00pm)