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Orewa College student Kaea Taurua put in an intense physical effort to win his ticket to compete in the 2020 Crossfit Games, which were to take place in America in August.
The Crossfit Games is seen as the Olympics of the sport, with only a small percentage of athletes getting to the level required to compete.
The 15-year-old undertook a gruelling series of six Crossfit workouts over four days in early March to qualify for the games. For this international competition, his workouts took place in his parents’ gym, Crossfit Hibiscus Coast, and were recorded, judged and verified. Kaea’s effort placed him 7th in the world out of thousands of others in his age group – the top 10 competitors qualified for the games.
However, Kaea heard recently that, due to the Covid-19 restrictions, if the games take place at all it will be on a much smaller scale, with only the top 20 adults in the world (aged 18 plus) able to take part.
This means Kaea will have to re-qualify for next year’s games, this time competing in the 16 and 17-year-old category.
Although he is now re-focused on this goal, it was devastating news.
“We are so very proud of him,” his mother Quanita says. “While we knew this was coming due to the state of the world, it was hard to take after watching Kaea work his butt off for two years. We feel he deserves recognition for the blood, sweat, tears and sacrifices he made to get to this point.”
During lockdown, Kaea, his parents and members of Crossfit Hibiscus Coast were able to continue their workouts via an online programme, using equipment they signed out of the gym on the last day of Level 3.
“Crossfit kept us sane,” Quanita says. She says several members got creative with what they had at home, using chairs and benches for step-ups and making their own pull up bars.
