Kristen Hughes

Infobox athlete biography


athletename = Kristen Hughes
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current position = Goal shooter
current team = Adelaide Thunderbirds
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previous teams = Australian Netball Team (2004)
Australian 21U Squad (1999)
Adelaide Thunderbirds
Canberra Darters
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championships as player = 2007,2008 club Fairest & Best, Liz Stapleton Medal
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Kristen Hughes (b. August 28, 1986) is an Australian netball player, who currently plays for the Adelaide Thunderbirds in the ANZ Championship.

Kristen received her first call up to the Australian Netball Team in June 2004, after Australian shooter Catherine Cox was injured a week before the team was due to fly to New Zealand for a Test Series against the Silver Ferns. She now has 5 international test caps, always playing as goal shooter and is a member of the current Australian Team.

After Hughes was selected in the Australian 21U Squad in 1999 while playing with the Adelaide Ravens, her sporting career stagnated as the Ravens were wooden spooners, then were forced to leave the national league, making way for the Australian Institute of Sport team, the AIS Canberra Darters. Star coach of the Adelaide Thunderbirds, Marg Angove, saw her potential and recruited her. Kristen is now incredibly different player after maturing rapidly into one of the most accurate and prolific shooters in netball. Her strengths otherwise are energy, movement, and a tricky use of "the roll" to make avoid defense and open the shooting circle for a great threading of the ball.

Kristen is the older sister star goalshooters Jasmine Gradwell and Rachel Gradwell, who both played for the Perth Bullets in the 2008 netball season, formerly of Melbourne.