Leon Blanchet
Leon Blanchet, of Leeston, received the Insignia of an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to athletics. Mr Blanchet is the convenor of Athletics New Zealand’s national technical officials committee and has been involved in athletics at a national and international level as an official in a voluntary capacity for 35 years. He was the Technical Official at the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic games and represented New Zealand on the Jury of Appeal at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. He was the International Technical Official at the Shanghai 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games and the Competition Director for Officials at the 2011 Christchurch International Paralympics Committee Athletics World Championships. A life member of Canterbury Athletics, he has used his engineering skills to design and build a wide range of technical equipment for wheelchair athletes.