Sonya Hardcastle (born 16 April 1972) is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

former international

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

player. An attacking midcourt player, Hardcastle was first selected for the

New Zealand national netball team The New Zealand national netball team, commonly known as the Silver Ferns ( or ), represent Netball New Zealand in international netball tournaments such as the Netball World Cup, the Netball at the Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Games, the ...

, the Silver Ferns, in 1992. She sustained a back injury the following year, which kept her out of the

1993 World Games The 1993 World Games (), the fourth World Games, were an international multi-sport event held in The Hague, Netherlands. Titles 155 titles were awarded in 23 sports (not including invitational sports — aikido, equestrian vaulting, indoor tug o ...

. Outside of netball, Hardcastle was stalked several times during her early international career. After taking time out to focus on studies, Hardcastle rejoined the Silver Ferns in 1997, and went on to win silver medals at the

1998 Commonwealth Games The 1998 Commonwealth Games ( Malay: ), officially known as the XVI Commonwealth Games (Malay: ), were a multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 1998 games were the first held in Asia and the last Commonwealth Games of the 20th cen ...

and 1999 Netball World Championships. With the start of the Coca-Cola Cup (later the

National Bank Cup The National Bank Cup, originally known as the Coca-Cola Cup, was the top level national Netball in New Zealand, New Zealand netball league between 1998 in New Zealand, 1998 and 2007 in New Zealand, 2007. The league was organised by Netball Ne ...

) in 1998, Hardcastle signed with the Northern Force; having moved to live in Invercargill, she also started playing provincial netball for Southland. She announced her retirement from all forms of netball after 1999, although she played again with the Northern Force in 2001; she also made a surprise return to play with North Harbour in the 2008 provincial netball season. Her sisters Nadine and Rochelle also played alongside Sonya in domestic netball, with Rochelle joining her in the Northern Force. Her mother is also a coach with Netball North Harbour.

References

External links

Profile at the New Zealand Olympic Committee website
New Zealand netball players New Zealand international netball players Netball players at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games netball players for New Zealand Commonwealth Games silver medallists for New Zealand New Zealand Māori netball players 1972 births Living people Commonwealth Games silver medallists in netball Netball players at the 1993 World Games 1999 World Netball Championships players Northern Force players Northern Mystics coaches Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games World Games silver medalists for New Zealand World Games medalists in netball Medalists at the 1993 World Games {{NewZealand-netball-bio-stub