Content
Sports champions inducted into Hall of Fame
Former Australian pace bowler Ashley Noffke and world champion bodyboarder Kira Llewellyn have been inducted into the Sunshine Coast Sports Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony was held at the University of the Sunshine Coast tonight as part of a special ceremony celebrating the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Sunshine Coast Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.
Noffke became an inspiration to Sunshine Coast cricketers as he rose through the ranks to the highest level of the sport while still on the Sunshine Coast.
The Nambour-born fast bowler played for Maroochydore and then the Sunshine Coast Scorchers before earning a call-up to the Queensland Bulls.
He became a permanent fixture for the Bulls from 1998-2009, which was highlighted by three Pura Cup victories.
He is one of only three cricketers in Australian history to take 50 wickets and score 500 runs in an Australian summer (2007-08).
Noffke represented Australia in the One Day International and Twenty20 arenas and was also selected in the Australian Test squad for an Ashes tour of England and two tours of the West Indies, though he never played in the Baggy Green.
He finished his playing career with Western Australia before returning to Queensland to coach.
Kira Llewellyn joined a local bodyboarding club on the Sunshine Coast in 1994, and soon after won her first junior national title as a 14-year-old. She went on to win another three junior national titles and three open age Australian titles.
At 18 years of age, Llewellyn became the youngest Australian and the first Australian female to win the Pipeline event in Hawaii.
Llewellyn was selected as the sole woman bodyboarder to represent Australia at four World Surfing Games in Brazil, South Africa, Ecuador and the United States.
She became a dual Games Champion after winning gold in both 2004 and 2006, and in 2007, Llewellyn clinched her 20th world title event in Spain.
The Sports Hall of Fame ceremony also featured the presentation of a Certificate of Merit award to long-time Sunshine Coast netball administrator Lin Corbett.
— Terry Walsh