Jo Edwards
Joanna Edwards MNZM (born 5 February 1970) is a New Zealand international lawn bowls competitor. She has won two world titles and three Commonwealth Games gold medals.
Edwards in 2014 | |
Personal information | |
---|---|
Nationality | New Zealander |
Born | Clatterbridge, England | 5 February 1970
Bowls career
Outdoors
At the 2002 Commonwealth Games she won a gold medal along with Sharon Sims in the women's pairs event.[1] She has twice won the Gold medal at the World Outdoor Bowls Championships in the pairs events: in 2004 with Sharon Sims; and in 2008 with Val Smith.
In 2014 she won a second Commonwealth Games gold medal after winning the women's singles in Glasgow.
In 2016, she won a bronze medal at the 2016 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in Christchurch in the singles and a silver medal with Angela Boyd in the pairs.[2]
She was selected as part of the New Zealand team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Queensland,[3] where she claimed a gold medal in the Singles.
In 2020 she was selected for the 2020 World Outdoor Bowls Championship in Australia.[4]
In addition to World Bowls and Commonwealth Games success she has won five gold medals and (nine medals in total) at the Asia Pacific Bowls Championships[5] and excelled at the 2015 APL (Australian Premier League), she was the only woman competing in the eight-team tournament featuring 24 of the world's top players and played alongside her countrymen Ali Forsyth and Shannon McIlroy to win the title at Club Pine Rivers.[6]
Indoors
Edwards has won six World Cup Singles titles (a women's record) with the latest success being in 2019. Previous wins were in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2017.[7]
Honours
In the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours, Edwards was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to lawn bowls.[8]
References
- Profile at the New Zealand Olympic Committee website
- "2016 World Bowls Championship Finals". Burnside Bowling Club.
- "Bowls: New Zealand team named for Commonwealth Games". New Zealand Herald.
- "Blackjacks Selected for World Championships 2020". Bowls New Zealand.
- "Results Portal". Bowls Australia.
- Landells, Steve (17 November 2015). "Lawn bowls: Jo Edwards stars in Blackjacks triumph". New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
- "World Cup indoor singles – Day 9". Bowls International.
- "Queen's Birthday honours list 2014". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 2 June 2014. Retrieved 9 April 2018.