Andrea Anacan is set to become the first New Zealander to ever compete in karate at the Olympic Games.
The 30-year-old was officially selected to the New Zealand Team for Tokyo at a function held today at the Murray Halberg Retirement Village in Auckland.
Anacan says she's honoured to represent New Zealand and karate.
"It means the world to me to be part of this New Zealand team,” said Anacan.
"I didn't ever dream of going to the Olympics when I started this sport, it's been a bit of a surprise to be honest. There's been a lot of hard work, I can't quantify the hours that me and my sensei have put in, we never could have imagined this but I couldn't be more excited."
Anacan was born in the Philippines and began the sport at age four before moving to New Zealand and continuing her passion.
She said she committed to the discipline due to it’s practical applications.
“My mum gave me an option between ballet or karate, apparently I told her, ‘well, what's going to happen if I get kidnapped? Do you want me to dance in front of them? Or do you want me to fight them off?”
After Anacan moving to New Zealand with her family aged 12, she linked up with sensei Johnny Ling, who advised her to give up competing in the contact version of karate, kumate, and chose to focus on the non-contact version of kata instead.
Kata is a performance discipline where athletes perform a series of offensive and defensive moves popularly known as forms.
Anacan said the decision proved to be the right one.
"Sensei told me when I was 14, 'if you don't grow any taller in a year, you'll stop competing in kumite and do kata'. Because he told me that I can't reach my opponents when I'm fighting and they're so much taller than me and with a longer reach.
"I didn't grow any taller, I'm still four foot 11 but it's actually really beneficial for kata because my centre of gravity is lower."
Anacan finished seventh at the 2018 Karate World Championships and has been working towards the New Zealand Olympic team since then.
The Olympic kata competition begins on August 5th.
The event in will be held in Nippon Budokan, an indoor venue located in Tokyo’s Kitanomaru Park which hosted judo events at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.
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