A Queenstown teen’s headed to Birmingham next Friday to represent New Zealand at the 2022 Commonwealth Karate Championships.
Wakatipu High School student, Mackenzi Jackson, 17, has been training up to three hours a day on top of studying for this week’s mock exams.
‘‘I’m pretty busy at the moment,’’ Mackenzi laughs.
Mum, Nikki, says if it was up to her daughter, she’d be training during school hours, too.
In May, Mackenzi travelled to New Caledonia to compete at the Oceania Karate Championships, snatching bronze in both the New Zealand team kumite and the junior kata events.
She got straight back into training when she got back to Queenstown, preparing for the South Island Karate Champs, where she won two golds.
She continued her winning streak last month at the NZ Open Karate Champs and NZ secondary schools karate tournament in Christchurch.
There, she struck gold again, winning the NZ secondary schools kata and kumite events, the NZ Open 16/17 premier kumite event, and took bronze in that age group’s premier kata event.
Those results, along with her performance at training camps, led to her selection for Birmingham.
Mackenzi says it’s ‘‘amazing’’ to be representing NZ in the United Kingdom, with her training ‘‘getting pretty intense now’’.
In the lead-up, she’s been working with sensei Pat Quaid to tweak the finer points of her technique and speed.
She says at the start of the year, she couldn’t have imagined herself getting this far, but did have hope.
While she’s nabbed a couple of sponsors to help get her overseas — Queenstown’s PlaceMakers and Christchurch’s Smiths Auctions — she’s also set up a Givealittle page to help fund the trip.
To donate, visit bit.ly/3PUW4h4
