Forty seven of the region’s sporting stars have been recognised on the new honour roll.

Little was delighted to be among them. 

“I was really happy to be recognised,” she said.

“I’m very proud of what I’ve done.”

She was one of the discoveries of the process of forming the wall and, as committee for honouring Tamworth regional sporting representatives chairman Wally Frankin told those gathered at yesterday’s ceremonial launch, his favourite story.

It all unfolded a couple of years ago when Franklin was up in hospital in Bundaberg.

He got a phone call asking him whether he was the person organising the Hall of Fame, the caller adding that he had someone that had never been recognised.

Franklin himself hadn’t heard of Little but his research revealed a distinguished career – two world titles and induction into Australian Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Now living in Newcastle, Little attended primary school at the Seventh Day Adventist School and then Tamworth High.

“I started off in dance. I did ballet, dance and aerobics as a young child,” she said.

After finishing school she won a scholarship to McDonald College in Sydney.

It was while there that she saw on television a sport aerobics competition.

Intrigued, she headed down to the local gym, and was hooked.

“I said ‘I want to be a world champion in that’,” she said.

And so the hard work began.

“I did gym training, flexibility training,” she said.

“I’d train twice a day – morning and night.”

It paid off. In 1995 she won the NSW Aerobics Championship and a year later was the Australian champion.

That same year she was a silver medallist at the world championships in the Netherlands.

The following year she won the World Aerobic Championship and the Haiti World Games (the equivalent to the Olympic Games for non-Olympic sports).

Another of the inductees was Hockeyroo Kate Jenner.

Jenner is coming back from the shoulder injury that saw her miss the Commonwealth Games semi-final and final, but isn’t far away from playing.

“I’m back to full training at the moment,” she said.

She said doctors wanted to make sure they got the shoulder 100 per cent right.

She’s one of nine hockey representatives on the wall, joining fellow Hockeyroos Kim Small, Anne Stevenson and Oxley High team-mate Hollie Webster, and Kookaburras Garry Jennison, Des King, Mathew Smith, Michael York and Matthew Willis.

“It was good to see so many hockey people,” she said.

“It shows how strong hockey is in Tamworth.”