Matthew Oxenham wasn't quite sure what he was getting into when he signed up to wrestle.
"I watched some wrestling on TV last year and I thought it would be like that. It's different, but I like it anyway," says the 9-year-old.
The Te Atatu youngster is now passionate about his new sport, Olympic wrestling. He recently won two gold medals at the Club Physical Auckland Olympic wrestling championships.
The club won seven other golds at the event, one of few wrestling competitions in Auckland.
The team of 25 under-13 year olds who practise freestyle wrestling is coached by Clinton Hall, a wrestler who has been blind since a penicillin injection affected his sight at the age of two.
"I was into a lot of different martial arts since I was five years old. I went along to a wrestling club when I was 18 and really liked the challenge, so I decided to take it up," he says.
"As a blind person, there aren't too many sports like rugby or soccer that I can do. In wrestling I am in contact with the other guy the whole time, so I can do it."
The team was set up in December by Club Physical's owner Paul Richards, whose son was involved in the sport.
He says this wrestling style requires skill, strength, fitness, speed and intelligence.
"We do a method of wrestling that uses technique over power. Most kids use power but my hope is that some of these kids could go to the Olympics when they are older, so it's good to teach them good technique now," says Hall. Blindness does not impede his coaching style. "Because I am blind, I am a lot more hands-on coach than others might be."
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