Games newcomers

Good work at home seals opportunity in Scotland

Chanel Kavanagh’s early experiences in judo didn’t exactly suggest she would be in the sport more than a decade on.

“My dad was coaching at the Tauranga judo club when I was about 5,” the 19-year-old said. “I was the smallest in the class and the only girl. I found it a little bit difficult at first because I was the smallest there and getting smashed all over the place.

“But as I got bigger I started to really enjoy it.”

Fast forward 14 years and Kavanagh is part of a competitive 11-strong squad heading to Glasgow next month, with medal ambitions in their sights.

Kavanagh sealed her spot at the Oceania championships in Auckland this year. She finished second in the under 48kg open, and won the junior, or under 21, event. In the process, she twice beat the Commonwealth’s No 1ranked athlete, Australian Chloe Rayner.

Kavanagh is ranked second — a solid medal chance in Glasgow. Those wins also gave Kavanagh a healthy dose of self-belief.

“I was really happy because I’d never beaten Rayner before. I managed to beat her twice on that day. That looks really good on my record.”

So the congratulatory text message duly arrived: Glasgow was calling.

“I didn’t believe it at first and had to read it again. It was a bit of a shock.”

So how big will the Games be for this young woman studying early childhood education at Waikato University’s campus in Tauranga? “The biggest. All my years (competing in the sport) have pretty much come to this.”

In judo, so much of an athlete’s prospects hinge on a favourable draw. That, and simply how they are feeling in mind and body on the day.

“I’m going to be fighting people I’ve never fought before. I don’t know their level, or how they’ve been training, so it’s going to be really interesting, and really hard at the same time.”

Kavanagh leaves for Glasgow on July 18. She’s doing six days’ training a week, twice a day, plus variety in the form of gym work and interval sprinting.

She is one of nine members of the New Zealand squad ranked in the top three in their division in the Commonwealth. So for a sport which sails well below the radar, Glasgow shapes as a time when it could make a large statement.

Judo has been left off the 2018 Games programme in the Gold Coast. so no time like the present to make a noise.