A common cold was threatening to derail inline hockey junior international Grace Niblock's final preparations for the biggest sporting event she has ever competed in - the Junior Olympics in California.
The Kamo High School Year 12 student leaves for the United States today, to compete at the biggest junior inline
hockey competition in the world - with high hopes of success, despite struggling to speak as she recovers from a cold. "This is as good as it gets for me - in terms of competitions. Luckily, I've been training hard for the last month, so hopefully this [cold] won't be a big set-back," she said.
More than 50 international teams from China, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Mexico and Columbia will compete for medals in the International division.
"The last major tournament my team went to about two years ago, they won the international division, but it was a smaller tournament than this - but we still hope to do well but it's going to be interesting to see how we do against the American teams," she said.
There are two tournaments that the Kiwi boys' and girls' U18 teams will be competing in - the International and the All-Comers competitions - which will include top American club sides.
"We're hoping we do well though. There's a fair bit of talent in our team, we thrashed the Australians at another tournament 11-0 in one game, so we are ready. But the only question: is how good are the other teams?" she said.
Training has been in the form of weekend camps, that draw together the far-flung members of the team into a central location.
She was the only Northlander named in the Kiwi sides after the national championships in New Plymouth in April. Niblock has been a part of the national junior team after first being selected in 2007 and is one of the side's most experienced skaters.
