Helen Townsend (born 16 August 1969[1]) is a New Zealand secondary school teacher and Olympic softball player from Christchurch.

Townsend was born in Christchurch and started playing softball from age 14.[2] She represented New Zealand in softball in the New Zealand Under 19 team in her final year at Burnside High School, which she attended from 1983 to 1987.[3] For ten years from 1990 she played in the Senior Women's team, and represented New Zealand at the senior world championships in 1994 and 1998.[2] The team missed out on qualifying for the 1996 Olympics, but made it to the 2000 Olympics at Sydney, where it came fifth.[2] She played in Italy for a year and then in Canada for a year,[3] and retired from playing softball after the 2000 Olympics.[2]

Townsend graduated from the University of Otago with a Bachelor in Physical Education, and after playing softball in Canada was appointed as a full-time physical education teacher at her old school, Burnside High.[3] After the Olympics, she was a video analyst for the New Zealand men's national softball team[2] and while in that role, the men defended their world championship title.[4][5] She remained video analyst for the men's team until 2009, when she was inducted into the Softball New Zealand Hall of Fame, along with three others.[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ "Helen Townsend". Sports-Reference. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Ash, Julie (1 January 2004). "Softball: High-tech eye on Black Sox". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 O’Connor, Paul (2009). Choosing the Right Path: Burnside High School 1960–2010. Christchurch: Silver Fox Publishing. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-473-15685-5.
  4. ↑ "ISF X Men's World Championship". International Softball Federation. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  5. ↑ "ISF XI Men's World Championship". International Softball Federation. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  6. ↑ "Honours Board". Softball New Zealand. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  7. ↑ "White Inducted into ISC and New Zealand Halls of Fame". GoDucks.com. 23 September 2009. Archived from the original on 14 August 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.


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