Amy Gabb's not one to shy away from a challenge. In fact, she likes to attack them with a jumping front kick.
The 23-year-old single mother will head to Brazil in July to represent New Zealand and Australia at the Kyokushin Open World Tournament.
She's the only Kiwi selected tofight at the three-day full contact karate tournament, where she'll be joined by a male counterpart from Australia.
Amy's father ran dojos (karate clubs) in Tauranga and Auckland when she was a child.
"I started when I was 14 because I moved to Auckland to be with my dad, and then it was kind of like I had to do it, and then I fell [in]to really enjoying it," Amy says.
"I love the challenge ... the adrenalin, I guess, and the feeling of accomplishment once you've had a fight or once you reach a goal or something, it's like 'wow, I did it'," she says.
She had her daughter, Niyah, when she was 19, during a break from karate, but got back into it when Niyah was 1.
Last year Amy won both the New Zealand open heavyweight women's title and the Australian open women's title, despite only competing in about four tournaments due to being in her final year of an early childhood education degree.
She'll defend her New Zealand title on May 23 in Auckland.
She also trains in Auckland, travelling there every couple of weeks. In between, she does Muay Thai, boxing and kick-boxing circuit training at Warrior Muay Thai in Mount Maunganui to keep fit.
And as if an active 3-year-old and constant training and travel weren't enough, she also works four days a week as a finance broker, though hopes to teach fulltime next year.
"It is intense and it is really tiring and I feel really bad being away from my daughter, because it's a huge commitment, but I'm just going to go hard for a few more years," she says.
"I'm going hard while I can."
Tauranga South's Amy Gabb hasn't let being a single mother to 3-year-old Niyah stop her from taking on the world at an open karate tournament in Brazil in July. Photo: GEORGE NOVAK
Financially, getting to Auckland every couple of weeks is a strain.
Her mother, step-dad and sister are a vital local support network. Amy pays her younger sister to babysit Niyah while she trains.
"Nothing's free ... it's a huge commitment," she says.
She has already raised enough money to cover flights to Sao Paulo, now she just needs $2500 to cover training in Auckland, and food and transport while in Brazil.
There are no weight divisions at the world tournament.
