Maria Tanner spends 5mins with Alana Smith

Every night we meet, usually around 8 o’clock and only for the briefest of moments but for the past year Alanna Smith has been turning up on our TV screens and we have been tuning in to hear what the young CITV Sports reporter has in store for our daily fix of sports news. This week we pay homage to our very own sports presenter and get a final 5 minutes with the one and only Alanna Smith before she heads off to the cold depths of Otago to become a fully fledged ‘scarifies’ student.

Herald: So you’re ending your tenure with CITV as the Sports Anchor and although we are sad to see you go we’re equally excited for you too, can you tell us what your plans are for 2012?
Alanna Smith: Well I really enjoyed reporting about sports but I’ve decided to head over to Otago University to study Environmental Management.

H: Wow that’s a completely different and broad field to dive into, do you know what you want to pursue within environmental management?
AS: At this point not really, but I guess I can get a feel for which parts I do and don’t like and sort of focus from there.

H: Sounds like a good plan!! Dunedin winters are pretty cold have you prepared for student living?
AS: Sort of, I have a few friends that are heading over soon too so that will be good. Other than that I’m looking forward to heading over, plus I heard Otago students go off!!

H: During your time with CITV reporting on sports in the Cook Islands what would you say you have enjoyed the most about that role?
AS: Well we have a lot of great talent out there and getting the chance to see that is probably the biggest highlight, also you get to meet a lot of cool people.

H: So Alanna we all know you present the sports but can you tell us some of the sports that you have been involved with?
AS: A number of different sports codes, netball, basketball, volleyball which I competed in the South Pacific Games 2011 that were held over in New Caledonia, and I have just recently taken up kite surfing.

H: Awesome kite surfing! How did you get involved with that?
AS: Well I’ve only been doing it for about 6 months now but basically I was introduced to the sport when I went over to Atiutaki to film the kite surfing comp and t h o u g h t it was pret t y sweet and that I’d like to give it a go. You could say my kite surfing skills are at the confident beginner’s stage! It can be pretty dangerous.

H: Ha so no jumps or tricks just yet then!
AS: Not yet, although I have a few battle wounds to show for it. I scrapped my foot something wicked along some coral and I’ve s e e n some pretty hard bails from other kite surfers but other than that side to it, it’s actually a pretty cool sport. Plus there aren’t a lot of other girls doing it at the moment so I like to try and represent on that part.

H: So this has become a bit of a standard 5 minutes question but what do you have playing on your iPod right at the moment?
AS: Haaa actually you probably wouldn’t even guess it but a whole lot of g a n g s t e r stuff at the moment.

Herald Issue 608 21 March
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