Khobi Paretoa is a waka ama star with a bright future. Photo / Stephen Parker
Khobi Paretoa is a waka ama star with a bright future. Photo / Stephen Parker
The best athletes have an ability to go into a zone. No matter how hard or tedious training becomes, they are able to focus on the end result and push through.
Khobi Paretoa is one of those people.
The 16-year-old Rotorua Girls' High School student has spent the first thirdof 2019 collecting medals at a range of waka ama events.
Khobi said she used to play basketball but was not that into it. Five years ago, a friend's mum asked her if she wanted to try waka ama. She fell in love with the sport.
"I wasn't getting bored of basketball but it wasn't really my sport so I changed it up. With waka ama, I love the vibes, the people and how much it can do for me physically and mentally," Paretoa said.
"You have to be really fit, mostly in the core and upper body, you still use your legs as well for leg drive."
In January, she raced at the Waka Ama Sprint Nationals. In March, she competed at the National Secondary School Waka Ama Championships and the Air Tahiti Nui Aotearoa Aito. During Easter weekend she was in the thick of it again at the Long Distance Nationals.
At those four events, in both individual races and in teams with her Hei Matau Paddlers clubmates, Khobi has won four gold medals and four silver medals.
She says, while all of her medals are special to her, defending her titles in the ruddered and rudderless 12km events at the Long Distance Nationals were the highlights.
Rotorua Girls' High School during the National Secondary School Waka Ama Championships at Tikitapu Blue Lake. in March. Photo / File
"[In long-distance races] you have to work harder. It's the same work ethic, the same amount of trainings but it's more intense and you just want to win it more. This year there was 4km added on to each of the races as well, you just have to pace yourself and stay consistent throughout the whole race."
Khobi trains 12 times a week, morning and night, and says she often reminds herself that if she slacks off it will give her opposition a chance to get better than her.
"I mainly do gym trainings in the mornings, working on core and upper body strength. Sometimes we do swimming. When we train on the water it depends on the season, in sprint training we just do the short distances over and over, for long distance we go for longer paddles around the lake, around the island.
"When we're training, we race the team next to us and we keep count of how many wins we each have. We always want to beat each other."
She says she is a competitive person, something which growing up with four siblings has contributed to.
"Especially with my sister, we're only a year apart and we both do waka ama so we're always trying to one-up each other."
With a busy summer of racing completed, she now begins a big block of winter training in preparation for the 2020 Waka Ama Sprint Nationals in January.
