NZ Tae Kwon Do champion Niketa beats the Aussies!

Room 14 recently welcomed Niketa into the class. She talks about her trip to Australia this year:

I was personally invited to go there by Mr Weston, a black belt instructor in Australia for the National Tae Kwon Do competitions. He met me at the NZ Tae Kwon Do competition in Wellington. He was refereeing my sparring match and he said that he wanted me to show his students, because I am really good.

I won gold in the NZ Nationals which is pretty cool!

When I got over there, I went to one of his club training on the Thursday before the nationals and I was given an Aussie jacket and an Australian Tae Kwon Do badge.

At the Australian Nationals I was entered into 3 events - specialty, sparring and patterns. In patterns, I went up against several people of a higher belt than me and I won gold!

In the next event, specialty, I had to kick a board that was abover my head with my foot and the other kick was a flying side kick. I had to run up and jump over a piece of string that was at my shoulder height and I got silver.

The last event was sparring and I went up against a few people who were taller than me and I got a bronze.

On the second day, Mum and I went to watch and I was presented with a Most Spirited plaque.

I was proud of myself, because I was the only person from NZ to go over and Mr Weston said he wanted to see me next year Mum said yes, we could go next year - I'm looking forward to competing there again next year!