13 Feb 2017

New Zealand cleans up at shearing champs

4:34 pm on 13 February 2017

John Kirkpatrick from Napier has claimed the individual world title for machine shearing for the first time.

John Kirkpatrick shearing in the individual machine shearing final

John Kirkpatrick shearing in the individual machine shearing final Photo: Supplied

The World Shearing and Woolhandling Championships were held in Invercargill from Wednesday to Saturday and New Zealand triumphed on the final night.

The lowest score wins with penalty points added for making second cuts to the wool or nicking the sheep.

Mr Kirkpatrick won the individual machine shearing title on quality, shearing the 20 sheep in a slower time of 17min 22.079sec, but his clean shearing meant he only had 61.554pts, while Gavin Mutch representing Scotland came in second with a quicker time of 16min 56.139sec, but a higher point score of 62.907pts.

Third place in the individual competition was New Zealand shearer, Nathan Stratford with a time of 18min 3.357sec and a score 63.818pts.

The New Zealand team of John Kirkpatrick and Nathan Stratford won the world machine shearing team title, shearing the 20 sheep in a time of 18min 56.464sec, 66.373pts - narrowly beating Scotland by 0.79points.

Australia came in third with a time of 19min 49.475sec and 72.674pts.

Joel Henare in the woolhandling final

Joel Henare in the woolhandling final Photo: Supplied

The world title for woolhandling was won by Joel Henare from Gisborne, who took back his individual woolhandling title that he won in 2012.

Mr Henare and his teammate Mary-Anne Baty took out the team woolhandling title for New Zealand with a score of 99.762 points.

Australia came in second on 141.464 points and the Cook Islands took third with 169.75 points.

The final night was a sell out with over 4000 people filling Stadium Southland, one of the biggest crowds to ever watch a shearing event.

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