Sonya Hardcastle
New Zealand netball player
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sonya Hardcastle (born 16 April 1972)[1] is a New Zealand former international netball player.
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 16 April 1972 | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in) | ||||||||||||||||
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Medal record | |||||||||||||||||
| Updated on 26 March 2010 | |||||||||||||||||
An attacking midcourt player, Hardcastle was first selected for the New Zealand national netball team, the Silver Ferns, in 1992.[2] She sustained a back injury the following year, which kept her out of the 1993 World Games.[3] Outside of netball, Hardcastle was stalked several times during her early international career.[4] After taking time out to focus on studies, Hardcastle rejoined the Silver Ferns in 1997,[3] and went on to win silver medals at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and 1999 Netball World Championships.
With the start of the Coca-Cola Cup (later the National Bank Cup) in 1998, Hardcastle signed with the Northern Force; having moved to live in Invercargill, she also started playing provincial netball for Southland.[5] She announced her retirement from all forms of netball after 1999,[6] although she played again with the Northern Force in 2001;[7] she also made a surprise return to play with North Harbour in the 2008 provincial netball season.[2]
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.[8]
