Two years ago she took up powerlifting.
At the Commonwealth Championships she lifted 190kg in the squat, 100kg in the bench press and 190kg in the deadlift - winning all three individual golds plus the gold for the highest combined weight total. Having previously put in performances that gave her a place at the worlds, she says the gold medals provided “the icing on the cake”.
To qualify for a world championship in such a short timeframe may be regarded by some as meteoric, but not for Rawinia.
“Honestly, I expected more but I just wasn’t very consistent over those two years - if I’d been consistent my total would have been way bigger,” she says.
Her personal bests are 195kg, 110kg and 195kg.
In a sport where it is easy to compare performances, she is unofficially the world’s second best junior female - unofficial as she is yet to compete at world level.
“The top [lifter] at the moment I can match her squat and her deadlift - and I should be able to get past her squat and deadlift [by August] - but her bench is like 160 kilos which is insane - I don’t think I’ll be able to get to that fast.”
Rawinia describes herself as “a bit of a sport junkie” at school.
“The only one I wasn’t really good at was basketball - but I played a lot of rugby at school.”
She left school in 2016 and signed up with Rangiuru with a single season with the Volcanix.
“I was being lined up to be a Black Ferns hooker, but I said no because I wanted to at least have a fall back career [in engineering].”
Immediately out of school she did a pre-trade course and then secured an apprenticeship at Page Macrae Engineering.
She says her powerlifting helps with her work - and sometimes “the boys” try and get her to pick things up because they know how strong she is.
“I just go ‘no, you can pick it up’,” she laughs.
Rawinia wants to be in Europe for at least three weeks prior to the worlds, to make sure she hits top form at the right time, but before then will be working to improve her personal bests in each lift.
She trains at Te Puke Fitness. Her coach is in Auckland but she has no problems getting motivated.
“Before it was because I was good at it, now it’s more of a mental defence mechanism - it helps me mentally, it makes me stop thinking about everything, it clears my mind and I only focus on the weights. I’m a bit of a motive-myself person.”
She says that is possibly why she is more suited to powerlifting rather than team sports.
At 22, this will be her last year competing as a junior, but she is already targeting open age lifting, and hoping plans to make powerlifting an Olympic sport come to fruition.
When compared to other open age lifters she says she would probably be ranked around fourth in New Zealand.
She also has one eye on the possibility of making “megabucks” at televised events like the Sheffield Powerlifting Championships where this the first prize is £25,000 (NZ$47,500).
■ A Givealittle page called Get Rawinia to Romania has been set up to help with fundraising.
