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Home / Gisborne Herald / Sport

Gisborne teens to tour with NZ squad

Gisborne Herald
18 Mar, 2023 08:44 AMQuick Read

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GIVING THEIR ALL: Ella Kelso (left) and Sydnee Andrews will be throwing themselves into a judo tour to Macau and Hong Kong in July. Picture by Liam Clayton

GIVING THEIR ALL: Ella Kelso (left) and Sydnee Andrews will be throwing themselves into a judo tour to Macau and Hong Kong in July. Picture by Liam Clayton

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Two Gisborne teenagers are preparing to compete internationally in judo for the first time after making a New Zealand squad.

Sydnee Andrews and Ella Kelso, both aged 16, will travel to Macau and Hong Kong for cadet and junior championships in July.

“I want to make it on to the podium,” Andrews said, adding that it was important to learn during competitition.

“There’s always room for improvement.”

Kelso agreed the tour would be a great learning experience and she aimed to win some fights, and perhaps make the podium.

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“It’s a big step up from where we are now.”

Andrews is in the 78 kilograms-plus division and will fight in both the juniors and cadets.

Kelso is in the under-63kg class, fighting as a cadet.

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Travelling to the championships at Macau first, and Hong Kong a week later, the two Year 12 students from Gisborne Girls’ High School will also have a three-day training camp in Hong Kong.

Andrews started judo when she was five, signing up to learn self-defence.

“It turned into my life,” she said.

“Fitness, self-defence . . . you need that when you’re growing up. I loved it.”

She enjoyed competing in a contact sport, which she described as hard, fast and interactive.

Andrews has set her sights on becoming a black belt and competing in the 2022 Commonwealth Games and 2024 Olympics.

Kelso said she started judo when she was 11, just for fitness in the first year or two. Lately, she has been taking it more seriously.

“It’s really different to other sports,” she said.

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“There are really cool people within the sport and it’s fun at the same time as being good for fitness.”

She aimed to be a black belt within a couple of years.

Both are part of the Tairawhiti Rising Legends programme.

What’s the No.1 attribute needed for judo?

A good attitude, said Andrews.

Persistence, said Kelso.

The pair are stepping up the intensity of their training in the lead-up to the tour.

Gisborne Judo Club coach Kiki Velloza is coach and manager for the tour. She said the pair had been training hard, as well as getting on with their school work.

“They’re great role models for the generation coming behind them,” she said.

“The club is very proud of them.”

Gisborne hosted a women’s training camp this year.

“Top athletes came into Gisborne,” Velloza said.

“It was a great start to the year. The two girls were part of that.”

Kelso said she knew some of the others in the New Zealand squad and they had become friends at training camps.

Andrews said: “In judo, you make friends so easily, because you’re both into the same thing.”

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