Sonia Waddell

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Infobox sportsperson Sonia Waddell (née Scown; born 19 February 1973) is a New Zealand athlete. She represented her country at a World Junior Championship in hurdles before becoming a rower, in which sport she was twice an Olympic competitor and where she won silver at a World Rowing Championship. She later competed as a cyclist and won medals at a UCI Para-cycling Track World Championship as a sighted guide.

Private life

Waddell is the daughter of former All Black Alistair Scown and sister of rugby player Hayden Scown. In 1998,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> she married fellow rower Rob Waddell.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rower Rebecca Scown is her cousin.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Sports career

Athletics

Waddell represented New Zealand in the 400 m hurdles at the 1990 World Junior Championships in Athletics in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rowing

She first represented her country in rowing at the 1995 World Rowing Championships in Tampere, Finland, where she came ninth in the women's quadruple sculls.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> From 1997 onwards, she competed in the single sculls, and at the World Rowing Championships in 1997, 1998, and 1999, she placed tenth, tenth, and fifth, respectively.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, she continued to compete in the single sculls, placing sixth and fifth, respectively.<ref name="sports-reference.com"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

She won a silver medal in the 2001 World Rowing Championships in the quadruple sculls,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> alongside Paula Twining and twins Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the 2003 World Rowing Championships, she competed in the single sculls and came seventh.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Cycling

In 2011, she won the New Zealand Cycling Time Trial Championship.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

At the 2011 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships she took one gold and one bronze as a pilot, with teammate Jayne Parsons.<ref name="Stuff.co.nz_3882594">Template:Cite news</ref>