Kickboxers earn country’s first medals

While Nelson's S.M.A. kickboxers are back in town, the afterglow of a successful World Championships still lingers.

The local team brought home all four of the country's medals from the WAKO (World Association of Kickboxing Organizations) World Championships, becoming the first New Zealanders in history to earn a podium at the event.

Five locals, Sarah Randall, Aaron Thomas, Lily Sinclair, Miguel Nunez and Yvonne Murray, who moved from Europe to train with the team in October, made the trip to Portugal at the end of last year to fight the world's best.

While Yvonne has experience at the highest levels, the rest of the team had not fought on international soil and came into the tournament as underdogs.

"Being isolated in New Zealand, and even more so in Nelson, throws many obstacles our way, least of all the lack of high-level sparring and competition," says head coach Sallie McArdle.

"However, that didn't stop this group of underdogs, even compared with the rest of the New Zealand National team."

Fighting in a highly competitive division, Miguel Nunez was impressive as he secured himself a top 15 world ranking.

After a bye in his first round, Miguel faced the Greek number one and found himself behind in a back-and-forth fight heading into the final round.

But two standing counts from constant pressure in the third round gave Miguel the win and put the division on notice of the up-and-coming young fighter.

Going into the quarter-finals, Miguel faced up against a much more experienced Croatian opponent and, this time found himself on the wrong end of a rallying last round.

"Another of our superstars starting out on his combat journey," says Sallie.

"At 21 years, Miguel has a huge future ahead of him."

Sarah picked up three of the team's medals, fighting in the veteran division and having an automatic berth into the semi-finals of the kick light, point fighting and light contact divisions.

Her improvement was noticeable against some of the world's best, with Sallie saying she was hard done by after having her best performance in the last fight of her competition.

Yvonne was the other New Zealand representative to medal, earning bronze in the light contact after some dominating fights earlier in the division.

Having moved to S.M.A just months before the fight, she had previously trained in Italy and has years of international fighting experience.

"(It was) not the result we wanted but an incredible achievement nonetheless, with Yvonne taking her rightful place on the podium of the highest level competition in our sport," says Sallie.

At almost 41 years old, Aaron faced opponents young enough to be his sons and discovered first-hand the speed and power of those youngsters at the top levels.

Having said he was going for the experience, he was treated to a first-round draw against the third-best fighter in the world in his division.

"Aaron can hold his head up high in the knowledge that not many 40-year-olds can say they went toe to toe with the best fighters in the world and took not one, but two of them to a split decision.

“I can't wait to have Aaron help coach the new wave of fighters coming through our amazing club whanau," says Sallie.

While Lily was the better technician in her fights, she struggled against the size and weight of her opponents in a tough division.

Despite her young age and still being new to the sport, she impressed Sallie with her persistence and the learnings she'll take home.

"Lily just never got the opportunity to show what she can do.

"I have zero doubt Lily will be a regular fighter on this circuit and will continue to learn and rise through the rankings until she sits with the best."

Alongside the World Championships, the team also spent time in several European camps to learn from some of the best coaches in the world.