Frances' road to Ireland

My name is Frances Lloyd I am 16 years old and a year 12 student at Tauranga Girls College. I have been doing Taekwon-do for nearly ten years now with Silla Taekwon-do the local club out in Te Puna. I have also had frequent visits to other clubs in the region such as BOP Academy and Hwa Rang Academy to do extra classes and also teach their juniors.

Even with spending so much of my time committed to Taekwon-do training and teaching I have achieved Merit endorsed Level One NCEA last year and I am on track with my Level Two studies. While I am undecided on my exact career pathway, I am currently leaning towards a future in the armed forces or the New Zealand Police. I know that whatever career I choose my grades now will make a difference and I intend to finish high school with University Entrance qualifications as I may wish to enter academic study later.

My first experience of national competition was in 2010 at the Auckland Star Series, I went thinking I wouldn’t even place in the pool, I was a gangly 10 yr old girl from a tiny club. I was really surprised when I won Gold in the Peewee Division. It gave me a taste for competition and I entered every tournament I could after that. I went on to win the National Competition, The Oceania Competition and qualified to trial for the World Championships.

Once I qualified I was able to attend High Performance Training in Auckland with the New Zealand Team. It gave me an opportunity to learn from the Masters and experience training with other like minded people who pushed me to kick harder, faster and be stronger both physically and mentally. It was a huge commitment for our family both in time getting me to and from Auckland every weekend and financially, fundraising the $10,000 needed to attend the Worlds in Italy. All the hard work, effort and fundraising paid off when I came home with 3 individual and 3 team medals and the World Junior Title.

Last year I was fortunate to be selected as one of the AMP scholarship recipients and their support allowed me to travel to Budapest for the World Cup, where I won another 2 medals and brought home the Junior World Cup (Best Overall Female).

This year as a family we are trying to raise funds to allow me to travel to Ireland with the New Zealand Team to defend my title as World Champion. The training for this involves driving to Auckland and back from Tauranga every weekend and staying up there for the camps once a month. Your support will mean I am able to focus on my training and not spend every Sunday afternoon doing carwashes to pay for the training camps and fundraise for my trip.