Global achievement from home

The family farm in Lawrence was probably not where Kylie Lyders envisaged celebrating her biggest success on the global stage.

Had Covid-19 not intervened, the 24-year-old would have been in France, competing against the world’s best aerobics athletes.

But then, had things gone the way they were supposed to, maybe it would have all gone differently.

Either way, Lyders certainly made it work for her.

She sat and watched with her family as the the FISAF world championships — which were moved online — played out.

She had been surprised when her routine, the same film as was used for the online national championships, was skipped, meaning she had made the finals.

That surprise soon turned to building excitement, as the placings of the six finalists were read out in reverse order — her name next to third place in the senior women’s individual category.

"It got to my name and it was, like, ‘Kylie’s through to the final’," Lyders, a rural banking assistant at ASB, said.

"I wasn’t expecting that. It was top six to the final. I was, like, ‘even if I get last out of the finalists, that’s really good’.

"Then it got to the prizegiving and it was sixth place and it was someone else. I was, like, ‘oh my gosh, Mum, that’s fifth place’. Then it was fourth place and then it was no.

"It was really cool. It was cool to watch everyone, too. It’s normally hard to watch all the other people, when you’re competing.

"It still doesn’t really feel real. It still feels like a dream. But very cool, exciting, overwhelming."

It was something Lyders never thought she would do when she began aerobics while at Queen’s High School, through the Queen’s Aerobics Club.

She followed a friend into the sport in year 10.

It was not until she moved to Christchurch, to attend Lincoln University, that international competition became a reality.

She began training under coach Emily Lawn, who finished second in the masters female category at the championships, at Game On Aerobics.

Lawn, who remains her coach by distance, encouraged her to enter the international stream.

That led to her qualifying for the 2019 world championships, where she placed 12th.

She returned to Dunedin last year, qualifying for the world championships again, although they were cancelled.

This year she was selected, alongside Invercargill’s Dani Kramers, for the championships in May.

It was decided early on that they would not travel to France, due to the difficulties managed isolation and quarantine would pose on the return trip.

The move to online kept the dream alive, while also allowing other New Zealanders to enter based off their performances at the national championships.

That kept Lyders’ training schedule full.

She tries to have one day off a week, and has to manage herself - both through physio and limiting routine practice - to keep her injuries in check.

Lyders is heading back to Christchurch, for work reasons, in a year’s time, but she hopes to continue to competing.

Lyders was not the only southern finalist at the championships.

Billie Allan and Saige Evans finished third in the junior duo.

Jo O’Halloran and Olivia Ferris were sixth in the adult duo, while Chloe Woodhouse and Immy Morey were sixth in the junior duo.

Invercargill duo Dani Kramers and Matilda Stevens finished fifth and sixth respectively, in the junior individual and cadet individual categories.