Moller helped set up the Carlson Gracie junior club in Wānaka after returning to New Zealand in 2018 from California, where she had been working for Nasa.
She joined a Los Angeles jiu jitsu club with her family while they lived overseas, and the family wanted to continue their sport in Wānaka.
"It is a bit of a funny sport ... it improves flexibility actually. I find I am a lot more flexible now I have started doing it. We kind of call it combat yoga," she said.
World masters levels are categorised by age, weight, belt, and sex, with athletes progressing to the next age group level every five years.
For example, masters 1 starts at 30-35 years old, while masters 6 is for people aged 56-60.
"I was in masters 6 and there are not a lot of competitors at the point. But at masters 1, the field is massive. Female masters 6, there are not many of us doing it," Moller said.
Moller estimated about half a dozen athletes from Wānaka and Queenstown competed at the large Los Angeles event.
"This is my third time. I have competed at blue, purple and now brown," she said.
However, last year she could not go to the world masters championships because she got Covid.
Since helping set up the Wānaka juniors six years ago, membership has grown hugely.
Moller estimated there were now about 60 junior members and a similar number of adults participating in a variety of programmes run from the club’s Gordon Rd gym.
Wānaka has three age groups, starting at 6 years old, the coaches’ focus on teaching children to be confident, respectful and not bully.
Black belt Jose Gomes, of Queenstown, is the chief instructor for the Wānaka and Queenstown clubs and travelled with the Wānaka-Queenstown team to Los Angeles.
Queenstown brown belt athlete Gillian Boyd was third in her masters 6 division, and it was good to see her get on the podium, he said.
"Lucas Kirchoff Pereira fought in the Jiu Jitsu Con Kids and got second place with an amazing fight in the final!
"Myself and Hisato Ibe [Queenstown] fought as well and did really good but didn’t make it to the podium. There were massive brackets and really high-level competition.
"We are super happy with the results and now we are all focusing on the Pan Pacific competition in Melbourne at the end of October ... It is going to be awesome," he said.
