Kathryn Harby-Williams

Infobox athlete biography


athletename = Kathryn Harby-Williams
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dateofbirth = birth date and age|1969|16|7
cityofbirth = Adelaide
countryofbirth = Australia
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current position = Goal defence
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previous teams = Adelaide Thunderbirds (1997-2003)
Auckland Diamonds (2004-6)
Australia national netball team
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Kathryn Harby-Williams (born July 16, 1969) is an Australian netball player and television presenter.

She currently works with Radio Sport New Zealand and is a Sky TV commentator for Sky Sport 1's live netball coverage of the ANZ Championship along with former Silver Ferns (Tania Dalton, Anna Stanley, and co-Australian Netball member (Natalie Avalenio) and the weekly netball show On Court and co-hosts with Anna Stanley. One of the most successful players of her era, she represented Australia for twelve years (95 caps) in her usual positions of goal defence and wing defence, including four years as captain from 2000 to 2003. She was victorious at two World Championships in 1995 and 1999, and part of the team winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and 2002.

Kathryn was known during her international career for amazing endurance, tenacity, and grit. Her commitment to stamina and speed are well documented, stemming from her failure to be selected in a representative team in her teenage years - she would take 100 sprints up a 30 metre hill as a regular pre-season training. At another time after spraining her ankle in a match against New Zealand, despite missing court training she managed to put in 4 kilometres in the pool next day.

She was the inaugural captain of the successful Adelaide Thunderbirds in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy national league from 1997 until 2003, when she retired from Australian netball and moved to New Zealand to take up a position as a reporter with the Sport 365 news programme.

Harby-Williams made a brief comeback in New Zealand, playing two seasons with the Auckland Diamonds in New Zealand's national league, the National Bank Cup. Incredibly at the age of 34 she was selected as the leagues most valuable defence player. She announced her retirement at the end of the 2005 season in order to focus on pursuing her television and radio career, but returned to the Diamonds in 2006 [ [http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/554440/660310 TVNZ] ] .

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