Sparring team sets sights on world champs gold

WARWICK SMITH/Manawatu Standard

PUT YOUR FEET UP: Members of the Lower North Island training squad Estelle Speirs (left) and Richie Lavin.

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Estelle Speirs says the world championships in Argentina next week are her best chance of winning a taekwon-do gold medal after two near misses.

The Palmerston North 22-year-old is competing in microweight sparring, team specialty and patterns and she is tipping her team disciplines as the smart bet.

The Kiwi lineup won bronze in the speciality and patterns events at the last world championships in Canada in 2007 and a bronze in specialty in Germany in 2005.

"Our female team has a really high chance of getting a couple of gold medals," she said. "We are reaching the heights a lot more consistently than before Canada."

In Canada, Speirs took part in the team sparring but being a microweight under-52kg competitor, came up against opponents too big for her.

Speirs competes in the International Taekwon-Do Federation, as opposed to the World Taekwondo Federation, which is the Olympic code. But she has no intention of changing allegiance to get a trip to the Olympics.

"Everyone asks that: `Why don't you change to the Olympic one?' But world champs is the highest level of our competition.

"They're pretty different. It's like karate to taekwon-do."

The major difference between the two is the ITF faction allows striking to the head during sparring.

Speirs, a sports business and marketing student at Massey University, is one of nine Manawatu fighters heading to the world championships. Eight are from the Palmerston North Taekwon-Do Academy and Annaliese Burr is from West End.

Manawatu have been dominating events nationally with the Central Districts women's team winning three golds and a silver at the national championships recently.

Palmerston North's Dave Ballard is the national team coach and Mike Yates, father of competitors Alicia and Anna, will manage the side.

Senior competitors from Palmerston North: Amanda Cleland, Kane Baigent, Alicia Yates, Estelle Speirs, Nikki Galpin, Sandi Galpin.

Junior: Mitchell Craig, Anna Yates, Annaliese Burr.