Kick-boxing champ juggles a busy life

Sue Latta is the current world professional kickboxing champion and that would suggest her life is pretty much centred around a rigorous training schedule.
But not so ? Sue and husband Magnus, a captain in the Military Police at Trentham, have a 14-month-old daughter, Niamh, Sue has a fashion business to run and she's also completing her teacher's registration and teaches PE and health part-time at Kuranui College.
Sue successfully challenged holder Bobbie Jo, of Australia, for the super welterweight title in Auckland in November 2002.
She was living in Palmerston North at the time but since March, home has been Featherston.
The win over Jo was her last fight before moving house and giving birth, and she's now in training for the world amateur kickboxing championships to be held in Thailand, November 5 to 12.
Sue said she's no stranger to running a business, and owned a martial arts and health centre in Palmerston North.
It was after Niamh was born she and a friend turned their hand to designing and producing a range of post-natal wear for breast-feeding mothers and experimenting with many different designs of getting access for the unique breast-feeding tops.
She and her business partner, Clare Walker, of Trentham, who also has a young baby, spent last year researching and experimenting and finally settled on a design that is easy to use and the most discreet in public, hence the name of the business ? Discreet.
Sue said all the materials selected for the tops have been tested using breast milk so there will be no "let down" in public.
The fabrics are stain resistant and designed to disguise and minimise any wet patches.
Then it was time to look at the fashion side of things.
Sue said for women to find time to reshape their bodies after birth is almost impossible but after conferring with style consultants, the creations were adapted to flatter the changing figures of nursing mothers so they could look their best and feel good about themselves.
Sue said she returned to work when Niamh was 12 weeks old but didn't want to stop feeding her "nature's best".
"I expressed every break I could but it was exhausting ? the hardest part was finding a private place where I could express without the fear of being caught."
"So we developed this collection that would look professional but still be fully functional for feeding or expressing."
Sue is trained in the physiology of the human body and said as every new mother will know there's a new softness of the stomach, hips and arms so not only do the tops offer the promise of discreet feeding but give mothers new confidence.
For Sue, getting into top shape for her kickboxing is her main challenge leading into the Thailand event.
She said she's put on weight since having her baby and has to weigh in between 63.5kg and 67kg to contest the super welterweight section.
She's training five or six days every week, with her programme a combination of hill sprints over 2.4km and lifting weights, and on the long, slow runs Niamh goes along for the ride with her mum.
Once a week Sue does a fitness run to see how she's progressing and during the next few weeks she'll also be making regular trips to Dannevirke, where her coach lives, to put on the finishing touches to her craft.
She's also booked for an Oceania tournament in Taupo on December 4, where the top four female kickboxers from New Zealand will take on their counterparts from Australia.
Sue said there's also a possible defence of her world professional title, as Jo has indicated she's keen on a rematch.
If that happens it probably be in Australia early in 2005.