Tauranga Judo Club trio claim gold at national championships

Tauranga Judo Club's national champions, from left, Terry Kung, Ana Moceyawa and Kenta Beech. Photo / Andrew Warner

Tauranga Judo Club's Ana Moceyawa, Terry Kung and Kenta Beech understand the pathway to success is paved with a lot of hard work - and that's exactly what they put in.

The trio are all national champions after winning gold in their divisions at the 2018 National Judo Championships.

Beech, 14, secured gold in the cadet men's 66kg division, silver in the seniors in the same weight and bronze in the open division; Moceyawa, 29, scored gold in the 63kg senior women and Kung, 29, took home gold in his 60kg senior men's competition.

But nothing has been handed to them, they each train most days a week, put in hours and hours of work, and have no plans of cooling down anytime soon because they still have goals to reach.

Beech secured three medals at the nationals, winning gold in the 66kg cadet men; silver in the 66kg senior boys' division and bronze in the open class.

This is the second time he has won a national title, taking gold in the under 60kg cadet men's division last year.

"I feel pretty happy with my achievements, I trained quite hard and I think it paid off."

Beech, who started judo training in Japan about three years ago, has more goals too. He plans to take part in more competitions next year and would love to compete in the Commonwealth Games one day.

The club's president, Blair Winders, is confident of that happening.

Before then however, the green belt who trains at least five times a week, wants to get his black belt, just like fellow Tauranga Judo Club member Moceyawa.

Moceyawa is no stranger to excelling in sport - just a few weeks ago she won a national wrestling title in the same division as her judo title.

She says she appreciates her latest win has been well received because all of her opponents had been fighting well during the competition so she knows she achieved what she had set out to do because she had worked hard for it.

The black belt, who has been learning judo since she was about 10, says despite doing it for so many years it is a sport she will always be able to learn something new about, an aspect she loves.

Both Moceyawa and Beech are now members of the University of Waikato Adams Centre for High Performance, which will no doubt help the pair in the efforts in becoming Commonwealth Games representatives in the near future.

After 10 years of the sport, Kung secured his first national title at the competition.

The 29-year-old, who has spent most of his judo career in Japan, has been based in Tauranga for the past two years and describes the sport as a challenge that has no end.

"I think judo is a lifelong goal,' Kung says.

Coach Kevin Kavanagh said the club's effort at this year's competition, held in Christchurch on October 27-28, was "probably one of the better performances over the last 20 years".

Of the estimated 400 competitors at the competition, 12 were from the Tauranga club, with nine coming away with medals.

"We've always had a pretty good record," he says, but this year was a standout.

Tauranga Judo club results:
Ana Moceyawa: Gold (63kg senior women)
Terry Kung: Gold (60kg senior men)
Kenta Beech: Gold (66kg cadet men); Silver (66kg senior boys); Bronze (open)
Collin Phayer: Silver (60kg Junior men)
Lesen Huiarangi: Silver (81kg cadet men)
Nicole Williams: Silver (52kg cadet women)
Dan Cousins: Bronze (73kg men's masters)
Meg Beech: Bronze (Junior girls)