Jada Pomana, 11, Te Ariki Pomana, 13, and Ravyn Simpson, 10, all won fight bronze medals in their divisions.
In his first fight, Levi Hune, 10, met a strong opponent from Turkey and did not advance.
Levi’s brother Koha, 13, was not in the team, but did the training and gained huge benefit from it, Melissa Mackey-Huriwai said.
Seventeen people from Gisborne made the trip, and Jamieson Tapsell’s grandmother travelled from Australia.
“All the kids had at least one parent there,” Mackey-Huriwai said.
“That helped a lot. The parents loved it; they want their kids to do it again.”
Seven Gisborne fighters qualified for these youth world championships. One of them — 15-year-old Jett Pohatu — could not make the trip.
But she and Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai are fighting in a youth tournament in Hamilton this weekend.
Ishtar also has reason to look forward to next year’s visit to Thailand, as she and Te Ariki Pomana have been offered the opportunity to fight for Dragon Muaythai, the Thai-run gym in Phuket that hosted them on this trip. This was the third time Ishtar and Te Ariki had attended the world championships.
“Next year we’ll stay a little longer so our kids can stay and train to fight for their team,” Melissa Mackey-Huriwai said.
Family environmentThis year they had 10 days of training and acclimatisation at the “nice, family environment” of the gym before taking the hour-long flight to Bangkok for the tournament.
A 19-strong “Black Gloves” team represented New Zealand and Te Ariki Pomana was the team’s flagbearer.
In Phuket they stayed at a motel next to the gym.
“We trained three times a day, every day except Sunday,” Mackey-Huriwai said.
“We started with a morning run that built from two or three kilometres to seven. Later in the day we’d have team training for two and a half hours, and one-on-one work with a trainer for an hour.
“Their trainers live at the gym, take sessions all day, and also fight as professionals.
“In amateur tournaments, the fighters are fully padded with headgear, chest protector and shinpads.
“Professionals take off all the padding and have smaller gloves.”
Melissa Mackey-Huriwai said that traditionally Thailand was not as strong in the senior grades of amateur muaythai as it was in the professional ranks.
But now that the sport had provisional recognition from the International Olympic Committee executive board, with the prospect of inclusion in the Olympic Games, amateur muaythai had gained impetus.
In fact, the standard of competition at the youth world championships was noticeably higher this year among competitors from all over the world. Nearly 1000 fighters aged from 10 to 17 took part.
Nine months gestationNine months of preparation went into this campaign, and similar commitment would be required for those wanting to attend the youth championships, again in Thailand, next year.
“I’ve given them a couple of weeks to reset their goals,” Mackey-Huriwai said.
“It’s a big commitment for these children and for their families — lots of fundraising, lots of training and lots of time that parents have to put in.
“We’re holding the first training camp for next year at the end of this month. They have until then to decide whether they are in.”
Highlights of the trip for her were seeing the children push beyond their limits.
“I told the parents their kids would never do anything harder than this in their lives, so if they could get through it, everything else would be easy,” Mackey-Huriwai said.
The daily routine of cutting down to make weight was a case in point. Fighters had to lose weight to make their division at weigh-in, then they would have a big feed — without overdoing it — to give them strength for the afternoon bout. And in a tournament setting, the routine could be repeated for the next day.
Coach and fighters set goals all the way, nutrition was monitored, strength training was conducted with the help of CrossFit 4010, and skill levels were improved. Along the way, the physical approach to education, with discipline and hard work, yielded behavioural and educational benefits.
Rangataua o Aotearoa (RoA) means “a group of warriors from New Zealand”. It is instructed in Maori and incorporates kickboxing and muaythai. Kickboxing differs from muaythai in that it forbids the use of elbows. Practitioners of muaythai, or Thai kickboxing, use their fists, elbows, shins and knees.
Whanganui-based John Tahu, now deceased, founded RoA in 1976.
“His first students were my dad (Taka Mackey) and John Marshall, who runs the Wellington club,” Mackey-Huriwai said.
“In Gisborne we have the biggest RoA club in New Zealand. Dad trains the seniors, me included, and I train the juniors.
“The other clubs are in Wellington, Whakatane, Ruatoki and Hamilton.”
