Recovering gymnast off to US

Ethan Phillips, 17, will compete with 13 other young Kiwis in Texas in December.

Rising Napier gymnast Ethan Phillips has won a place in an international tournament in Texas despite ending up temporarily in a wheelchair after spraining both his ankles.

Ethan, 17, is the first male gymnast from Napier's Omni Gymnastics to represent New Zealand overseas for 18 years. He will join 13 other Kiwis aged 15 to 25 at the Valeri Luikin invitational event near Dallas, Texas, from December 11-13.

He almost didn't make it after he landed awkwardly and severely strained both ankles at last month's Hawkes Bay championships, where he qualified for the event.

"I injured my ankles so I couldn't finish it, but with the results of my competition leading up to it, I still qualified, so as long as I compete well in the nationals I'm still in the team," Ethan said.

"I wasn't able to walk for a while. I was in a wheelchair for two or three days and then I was using crutches for about a week, but I don't need them any more."

Getting to this point has been a 14-year commitment. Ethan's mother, Tracey Phillips, said he began when he was 3 and was "passionate" about the sport.

"He's driven, very driven," she said.

Yesterday, he was going straight from classes at Napier Boys High School, where he is in Year 13, to a physiotherapist and then to train for three hours at Omni.

"A normal training week for me when I don't have injured ankles is three hours on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, an hour and a half on Wednesday, two hours on Friday and three hours on Saturday," he said.

He plans to move to Auckland next year to study physiotherapy and to train at Tri Star Gymnastics in Mt Roskill.

GymSports NZ tour manager Tarin Brettell said about half of the 14 people going to Texas came from either Tri Star or NZ's other leading club, the Christchurch School of Gymnastics.

She said the tour was unfunded so all team members would have to raise about $4500 for flights and accommodation, about $400 for a uniform and another $500 for food and other costs.

Ethan has raised $320 so far through a Givealittle page