Scholarship gives kickboxing teen's title dream a lift

Jessica Howse says she took up kickboxing to stay fit, but quickly realised she had a natural aptitude for it. Photo / Christine Cornege

She grew up with three brothers who didn't mind roughing it with her so stepping into a kickboxing ring seemed a natural progression for Cambridge teenager Jessica Howse.

The 18-year-old University of Waikato student has been training for little over a year and in between studying for a Bachelor of Management Studies degree is bashing pads, bags - and other people in the ring - in training for a kickboxing world championship in England this year.

She is also one of 43 new Hillary scholars on Waikato University's Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship programme.

The programme awards scholarships to academic high achievers who show significant leadership qualities and also excel in sport or in creative and performing arts.

Having played soccer as a youngster for seven years Ms Howse got into the gruelling sport last year as a way to keep her fitness levels up.

She quickly found she liked the sport and had an aptitude for it - something she thanks her brothers for.

"I grew up with three brothers and they didn't mind a bit of rough and tumble and neither did I," she said.

"I'm probably more into that kind of stuff than any other girls I know."

Miss Howse trains up to three hours a day after a 5am wake-up call.

Her training sessions are spread between the university and two kickboxing gyms in Cambridge and Te Awamutu.

She's already had some success in the touch-contact points scoring version of the sport, with victories at the Waitomo Fight series last year where she fought a national taekwondo champion after just a few months of training and won the champion of champions title.

"It's a lot faster than full-contact so it's not too hard hitting ... you can still get hurt though, I got punched pretty hard in the throat once."

Miss Howse is paying her own way to travel to Telford, England in August to compete in the World Organisation of Martial Arts Associations where she is likely to compete in the 55kg to 60kg category.

She said the mental side of kickboxing could be a challenge.

"Turning around when you're about to fight a woman who is as tall and as solid as a giant man is pretty off-putting, so I focus on staying calm and fighting how I've been trained to do."

Having the support of different people for my training and studies makes my start at university so much smoother. It also means I can get to the world championships in August, which I otherwise would have struggled to do," says Howse.

Her BMS degree will take four years.

"I want to eventually have a career in some kind of corporate sports marketing," she said.

"Sport is something that brings everyone together so I want my career to promote and foster that."