Ko ia te uri tuatahi nō Te Tai Tokerau ki te whakakanohi i tōna rohe i te whakataetae takaporepore o te ao.
Koia te wero nui kei mua i te aroaro o Grace Christey (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Whātua) 13 tau te pakeke nei, kua tīpakohia kia whakataetae i te World Aerobic Gymnastic Championships hei te 2020.
Ko ia te pōtiki o te tima haukori takaporepore o Aotearoa e whakariterite ana mō te haere ki te whakataetae o te ao.
E iwa ōna tau ka tīmata ia ki te hākinakina nei.
"I started off doing regular gymnastics and tumbling classes in Dargaville. Then one day my coach came to me and she was like, "Hey, there's this new sport coming in. Do you want to give it a go?", and straight away I was keen to try it."
Kua hipa ngā tau e whā, ā ko ia te toa o te motu i tōna reanga.
"Last year I went overseas to ANAC an International competition and came 10th out of 43 other competitors. This year we've just recently had nationals and I came first in my individual and we came first in our group."
Hei tāna, ka eke i ngā tāiro a Kupe, he hua ka puta.
"If there's something that we can't get just like keep on motivating ourselves to get it and keep trying. When you get it you get like a good feeling like "Yay I finally did it!" It just makes it more fun."
Iāianei, ko te ao kei te kapu o tōna ringa. Hei tā Grace, he tino moemoeā ōna ki te whakakanohi i a Aotearoa, ā kei te whakamau te titiro ki te toa o te ao i tēnei wā, ki a Riri Kitazume nō Hapani, hei iho pūmanawa.
Moe atu, ara mai, moe atu, ara mai, he whakakoikoi tinana te mahi a Grace hei ngā marama e rima e haere mai nei.
"This is the biggest thing in aerobics for me, it's the world championships. It's where the top athletes go. Just getting used to extra full on trainingm, getting my fitness up, my strength and just perfecting everything until it's perfect."
Ā te marama o Mei wehe atu ai a Grace ki ngā whakataetae o te Ao 2020 i Azerbaijan.
