No rest until he's the best

Cullinane College Year 13 student Dante Karangaroa has set his sights on being New Zealand's fittest man following a good showing at last weekend's CrossFit nationals. Photo/ Stuart Munro

Cullinane College student Dante Karangaroa wants to be New Zealand's fittest man.

The 17-year-old has just returned from the New Zealand CrossFit nationals in Hamilton where he put in a strong performance.

Karangaroa finished 16th out of 32 in the elite men's category. But as the youngest in the field there is plenty of room for improvement.

Next year he wants to win.

CrossFit is an exercise regime but also a competitive sport which tests athletes on a range of skills including weightlifting, gymnastics, running and swimming.

"So it does take up a lot of time trying to get good at heaps of things," he said.

"A lot of Olympic weightlifters get into it."

Karangaroa played rugby and league before turning to CrossFit about three years ago.

"League is a bit more of a team sport, you can relax a bit. With this there's not much relaxing," he said.

"My mum was doing it, she was just doing it fitness.

"It's not so much about enjoyment because you go and get beaten up a bit. For me it was a different scene that I hadn't been in to."

Now he trains four or five hours a day, before and after school, and in breaks between classes in the school gym.

When he first started out he tried to juggle league and CrossFit but the demands were too much.

So he decided to commit to CrossFit.

"Once I did my first competition, I think I was 16, I wasn't that serious, I just wanted to try it out and give it a go," he said.

"I got beaten. I was up against men for that one, but I ended up wanting to do more. It's a weird type of thing to want to do."