Pair arm wrestle their way to top

Good mates Maateiwarangi Heta-Morris and Monty Corbett have the biggest guns in Rotorua, and we're not talking about firearms.

The duo have been arm wrestling competitively for more than a year and both hold New Zealand titles in the sport.

Mr Heta-Morris said they became friends when Mr Corbett challenged him to an arm wrestle at a local pub, snapping his undefeated streak against pub goers.

The pair haven't looked back, training once a week in Mr Corbett's garage working on their strength and technique.

"We train for four to six hours at a time. There is a lot of technique and the best training you can do is just arm wrestling."

Mr Corbett said they now had their sights set on international competition and would travel overseas for the first time next month to compete in an Australian invitational event.

"The Australians are really keen to see what we are like.

"We want to win the whole thing and bring back the first Oceania title in New Zealand history."

He said to qualify for the invitational event, which will feature the best arm wrestlers from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Singapore, they had to win the national championships held last week in Auckland.

Mr Corbett won the under 110kg and under 100kg competitions and Mr Heta-Morris won the overall title, over 110kg competition and the over 95kg left-hand competition.

More than 50 people entered the event.

He said they had also qualified for the world champs this year in Poland.

Last year, the pair started a Rotorua arm wrestling club called Brothers in Arms and welcome anyone who would like to give arm wrestling a go to check out their Facebook page - Brothers in Arms Rotorua Armwrestling.

They are looking for sponsors to help their travel costs overseas to compete internationally and asked for interested people to contact them through their Facebook page.