Two Hamilton women will travel to the United States in December to battle it out in the 2014 Blood & Thunder Roller Derby World Cup.
Kate Magazinovic and Fe Foster are part of the Team New Zealand Roller Derby, a 20-woman team selected from around the country. Roller derby is a type of speedskating competition on roller skates and involves contact.
The sport requires dedication and being selected for the New Zealand team means trips around the country once a month for training sessions.
"Even one game is demanding, three is pretty [hard]," Kate said.
"When we train, we do long drills from 9am-1pm on Saturday, then play two games back-to-back. Then there's fitness training on Sunday morning and then more skills training Sunday afternoon and work on what we need to from the games."
Kate and Fe will travel with the team to Dallas, Texas, to compete.
The World Cup spans four days and sees 30 teams battle it out, sometimes playing three games in one day.
Fe was part of the World Cup in 2011, but that was a smaller competition with 13 teams involved.
"Last time, 2011, there was playoffs, you were drawn into pools and you had to win your pool to go forward. You could play one game or three games in one day, depending on the draw.
"We've been [good] with training this year. We have trained to play two back-to-back games which we didn't do last time, which is good I think for conditioning, because you get used to pushing yourself just a little bit more."
Fe took up roller derby as a child when she lived in Canada. When she moved to Hamilton she started a roller derby club, called Hellmilton Roller Ghouls.
"I skated as a kid. Roller derby is a much more well known sport over in America and Canada. I brought the skills that I learnt over there back here to teach the younger girls."
Kate became part of Hellmilton Roller Ghouls after watching the movie Whip It.
"The movie has been great to get people to know what the sport is, but it is really unrealistic. They play on a bank track, which is what you do in the States if you're really rich, but we play on a flat track. They clothes line each other and they're punching each other, there is only one ref. There are a lot more rules in real roller derby.
"I thought 'yeah, this is a sport I could do'. I then bumped into a friend who was fundraising for the team, she said 'come down tonight and do it'. So I did and that was that!"
Kate is nervous and excited, but fundraising has been hard as everything had to be booked as soon as the team was named.
"It was all a bit up in the air because no one knew who was on the travel team. They wanted to pick the best to go, it just meant the squad was announced and then it was like 'flights, accommodation, insurance, uniform, visa'. Flights ended up about $3000. Accommodation is about $500 just for Dallas, uniforms were about $100."
"We have done some fundraising as a team throughout the year, but it is just not enough yet."
The tournament runs December 4-7. For more information visit www.facebook.com/TeamNZderby or to donate visit www.givealittle.co.nz/org/TeamNZDerby.