Keelan has played numerous tournaments with his dad Noble, whose character featured in the chess movie The Dark Horse.
Lenard Keelan has learned indoor bowls from his brother Akuhata and sister Te Rina. The week before this win, Lenard was in Tauranga, where he took part in a big intermediate school indoor bowls tournament and was part of the second-placed combination in the pairs competition.
Lenard is also a keen chess player, and loves volleyball, ultimate frisbee and fishing.
From the age of four, he followed in his dad's chess-playing footsteps.
His mum and No.1 supporter Jodie Keelan says Lenard took to the game of chess “like a fish to water”, just like he did with bowls.
Lenard had four straight wins to qualify in the singles event. He then beat the experienced Doc Tipene 19-14 in the quarterfinals before beating young Asher McKnight 25-16 in the semifinal.
Lenard has also been selected in the top nine local under-18 bowlers. They will travel to Hamilton in the near future to play the North Taranaki u18 team on the Saturday, then teams from Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, Waikato and North Taranaki on the Sunday in the Membery Pearce Shield — a competition won by Poverty Bay-East Coast for four years in a row.
