>> sport

www.katherinetimes.com.au KATHERINE TIMES, WEDNESDAY JANUARY 22, 2014 31

NEW apprentice diesel mechanic atMoore’s Heavy Diesel Raymond Thom-sen finished his last Australian JuniorSpeedway Title competition in style lastweekend at Esperace in Western Aus-tralia.

The only Katherine representative tookhis 1978 KE55 Toyota Corolla to the WAto compete against 75 other drivers.

The 17-year-old improved on his pre-vious overall standing of 53rd to jump upto 39th in the rankings.

The first year apprentice had a disas-trous start on Saturday January 20,suf-fering electrical problems and failing tofinish in his first heat. Yet in his secondheat, young Raymond finished a re-spectable fourth.

He followed this up with a seventhplace in his third heat and roared aroundthe tracks in the final heat to finish sixth.

Raymond comes from a Speedwayfamily and his father Brett Thomsen wasthe former president of Katherine Speed-way.

Raymond is looking forward to startinga father son rivalry in mid April to earlyMay when the Katherine Speedway com-petition is expected to start.

Proud mum, Rebecca Thomsen, saidthe two have shared a bond with speed-way and both shared a passion for cars.

“It will be added motivation for Ray-mond to be better than his father whenRaymond moves into senior level thisyear,” Mrs Thomsen said.

The 42-year-old has seen Raymondgrow up around cars.

“He started driving when he was nineyears old and it has always been Ray-mond’s number sport,” she said.

The Thomsen family would like tothank all the local businesses who spon-sored Raymond in his last ride at the jun-ior Aussie titles.

When the rain stops and the Katherinedry season starts all eyes will be on theKatherine Speedway track when Brettand Raymond Thomson commence theirfather-son rivalry.

SSppoorr tt iinngg SSttaarr oo ff tthhee WWeeeekkNominate your favourite

local sporting starYou know someone who is apassionate soccer player?An up and coming footystar? Your favourite pitcher?A great bull rider or barrelracer? An outstanding lawnbowler? Simply a goodsports person - young or old?Nominate your favouritesports person for the newKatherine Times SportingStar of the Week column -simply send an email to edi-tor.kathtimes@ruralpress.com with your sporting star'sname and the club he or sheplays for.From all Sporting Stars thatmake it into the KatherineTimes in 2014, one star willbe selected for the KatherineTimes Sporting Hero award,which will be presented atthe Katherine Town CouncilAustralia Day Ceremony2015. Questions? Ring Paul at theKatherine Times on 89721111 or 0477 334 202.

Help Mateeka achieve her dreamsTHERE aren’t many 15-year-olds

quite as heroic as Mateeka Nielson. She comes from a strong family

and it is this strength, as well asamazing natural talent that hasearned her a place on the AustralianRugby Union National IndigenousGirls’ Ella Sevens team.

The team will play in NewZealand in April and fundraising hasbegun to ensure the young Katherinestar can make it on the plane, play forAustralia and have the trip of a life-time.

Mateeka has dreamt of playing forAustralia all her life.

“It didn’t matter what sport it was,but Mateeka’s goal was to play forAustralia,” proud mum, Kim Niel-son, said.

At 15, Mateeka was selected forthe NT representative side thatplayed in the Under 18 AustralianTouch Football Championships, heldat the Sunshine Coast last September.

She was also the Under 15 NTvice-captain at the Australian TouchFootball championships last October.

Through her impressive perform-ances she caught the eye of Aus-tralian Rugby Union coaches andearned a spot at the National Indige-nous School Girls Rugby Union EllaSevens Camp, held in Alice Springs.

Then - after training hard - shewas selected for the Australian teamto play in New Zealand in April thisyear.

“She is an incredible youngwoman who has juggled her sports,school work and household dutiesamazingly,” Mrs Nielson said.

“I will do anything to get her toNew Zealand.”

Mrs Nielson, 44, who has been on

dialysis for the past five years, saidshe was awaiting a kidney transplantafter being diagnosed with Nephritisstreptococcal, a throat infection,when she was 21.

While Mrs Nielson’s health hasbeen her number one concern, herdaughter’s sporting achievementshave been a great distraction.

Mateeka has been nominated forthe NT Sports Award, which will beheld in Katherine this March.

She was also nominated for theNT Touch Player of the Year award,and was invited to play AFL for theNT Thunder this year.

“If anyone deserves this it’s Ma-teeka, she has worked so hard for

this,” Mrs Nielson said.Stuart Hotel Human Resources

Manager Rebecca Lazar has organ-ised a meat raffle at to be held at theStuart Hotel on Friday, January 31,in a bid to raise money to help sendMateeka to New Zealand.

Tickets will be sold at the StuartHotel at 5.30pm and drawn at

7.30pm.The raffle will run for the next six

weeks with all proceeds going to-wards Mateeka Nielson’s AustralianRugby Union Tour of New Zealand.

Mrs Lazar said she was hopingKatherinites will get together to help“a remarkable girl achieve herdreams”.

Australia Day quiz

1. Kakadu National Park. 2. Captain William Bligh. 3. Commonwealth Scientific andIndustrial Research Organisation. 4. Gina Rinehart. 5. Penfolds Grange.6. Lyndon Johnson. 7. SAO (Salvation Army Officer). 8. Murray and Darling rivers.9. Kate Grenville. 10. 1927. 11. Admiralty House.

12. Errol Flynn. 13. Waverley (VFL) Park, 1991. 14. Prisoner. 15. Qantas. 16. Evonne Goolagong Cawley, in1976. 17. Little River Band and MadisonAvenue. 18. Bruce Highway. 19. Hinchinbrook Island. 20. Harry Butler. 21. Dorothea Mackellar.

22. Harold Holt. 23. Woop Woop. 24. HMAS Sydney. 25. Prince Philip, the Duke ofEdinburgh. 26. Crocodile Dundee. 27. Anniversary Day. 28. Tim Cahill. 29. Neville Bonner. 30. Gold Coast-Tweed andNewcastle. 31. National Basketball League.

32. The Heidelberg School, orAustralian Impressionism. 33. 1972. 34. 3 (Ian Healy, 74 Tests; AdamGilchrist, 70; Phil Emery, 1). 35. A joey or an imp. 36. Norman Lindsay. 37. John Farnham (Whispering Jack).38. The Royal Flying Doctor Service.39. Tony Barber and Glenn Ridge. 40. Brett Whiteley. 41. Lisa McCune.

42. Cate Blanchett. 43. Feathertail glider and frill-neckedlizard. 44 12. 45. Oscar and Lucinda and TrueHistory of the Kelly Gang. 46. Alice Springs. 47. Lord Casey and PeterHollingworth. 48. South Australia. 49. Pearl Bay. 50. Louie the fly.

ANSWERS:

> From page 14