Taekwondo champion from East Coast joins Navy
East Coast taekwondo champion Tiahuia Turei joined the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) this year because of its strong family environment and support for personnel to play sport.
Ordinary Writer Turei left the small Rangitukia settlement, about 150km north of Gisborne, in July to start the RNZN’s Basic Common Training course at Devonport Naval Base in Auckland.
“I opted for the Navy because I had heard from my ex-Navy taekwondo instructor that it was a good family environment,” Ordinary Writer Turei said. “She said the Navy also had a good strong community of Maori and Pacific people, and coming from a small Maori community that was appealing. I am planning to join the Navy’s Maori Cultural Group on the Base.
“I was also attracted by the Navy’s willingness to help by giving me time to train for tournaments that are coming up — allowing me time in the gym and working around my branch training.”
There are also strong family links to the military, with her grandfather and uncles serving in the New Zealand Army’s Maori Battalion and a great grand-father serving in the British Royal Flying Corps during the First World War.
Ordinary Writer Turei got a good grounding for the physical demands of the military while attending Te Kura Kaupapa o Te Waiu o Ngati Porou school in Ruatoria, where physical fitness was emphasized.
“One of our teachers was ex-Army and our head teacher was into triathlons and long-distance events, so they were big on fitness and discipline with us,” she said. “We exercised at the start of very day.”
To make sure she was ready for admission she attended a 17-week careers preparation programme run at Tairawhiti Polytechnic in Gisborne, which focussed on academic and physical readiness for the military.
Ordinary Writer Turei started taekwondo training at age 14 at her uncle John Grace’s Tikitiki/Ruatoria Taekwondo Club at the Rahui Marae in nearby Tikitiki.
She is now a black belt and has numerous medals and trophies from competitions around the country.
“I really enjoy that you have to combine flexibility, power and speed to be successful in this sport,” she said.
Her goal is to make the New Zealand team to travel to the World Taekwondo Championships in South Korea in 2020.
“Now that I’m based here, I’m hoping to train with Grand Master Oh at his club on the North Shore. He is a New Zealand selector and coach of the New Zealand team,” she said.
“While on Basic Common Training my instructors have allowed me to train on the Base at the gym three times each week and also attend a tournament,” she said. “One of the reasons I joined the Navy was because I knew they would support me in my sport.
“If I do really well I should be able to travel overseas and pursue some exciting opportunities.”
Ordinary Writer Turei will graduate from Basic Common Training on 14 December and then will start her career as a ship administrator.
