Sports
Kahuku High School student Bradina Anae, sets world records at International Power Lifting competition.
The younger daughter of Brad Anae, a former pro football player now residing in Laie, currently attends Kahuku High School where she has shown a wide variety of talents and interests. She has a talent for singing which she sowed when she auditioned for the voice of Moana, the leading character of the upcoming Disney animated feature. However, she also has a unique talent for young girls, that of powerlifting.
Bradina recently showcased her talent in power lifting with a world record in the recent IPL powerlifiting competition held in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 12-15, 2015 at the Golden Nugget Casino. Her total of 1186Ibs was good enough to set a world record for her age group and gave her a gold medal at the end of the competition. That Total weight was a combination of the bench press, squat, and dead lift.
She also set two more records with a first place dead lift of 502lbs, and her Squat at 418lbs were both individual world records. The dead lift was also a women's open World Record.
Bradina recently showcased her talent in power lifting with a world record in the recent IPL powerlifiting competition held in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 12-15, 2015 at the Golden Nugget Casino. Her total of 1186Ibs was good enough to set a world record for her age group and gave her a gold medal at the end of the competition. That Total weight was a combination of the bench press, squat, and dead lift.
She also set two more records with a first place dead lift of 502lbs, and her Squat at 418lbs were both individual world records. The dead lift was also a women's open World Record.
Adora Anae Name to US Collegiate National Team
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Aloha World Sevens Rugby Tournament enters its 2nd Year.The ALOHA WORLD SEVENS venue will be the 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium, Hawai’i’s most prestigious sports facility. It is also the largest stadium site for any major annual Rugby tournament in the United States.
ESPN 1420 AM Radio or NBC Sports Radio 1500 AM in Honolulu will broadcast live over the Internet selected high profile AWS matches each of the three days of the ALOHA WORLD SEVENS tournament, including the Men’s and Women’s semi-finals and final AWS championship matches. “USA Rugby enthusiastically supports the initiative and hard work behind the development of the ALOHA WORLD SEVENS (AWS) international championship tournament. We have been working with them for over a year,” said Nigel Melville, President and Chief Executive Officer for USA Rugby, adding that “there is so much talent and untapped potential for development of the sport in Hawaii.” Melville noted that “many former USA Eagles Sevens and 15’s national team members have come from Hawai’i and they have proudly represented the state and our country. The ALOHA WORLD SEVENS will only encourage and foster more talented Rugby players for the Eagles.’ One of the rationales for holding the tournament in Hawaii has to include the proximity of a large Pacific Island population living there. Samoans, Fijians, Tongans, and Maoris have all migrated to Hawaii, a destination for many college bound students and families. These are hard core Rugby fans and many played rugby before they played any other sport growing up in their homelands. McKay Schwenke, AWS Co-Founder, Executive Vice President and Tournament Director, said “our AWS tournament will actively reach out to various ethnic communities and consular offices in Hawai’i to support their representative teams from visiting countries. Hawaii's location, which is conveniently situated between the Mainland and Asia allows teams from the Pacific Rim from New Zealand to Japan to South America easy access to the tournament. The teams that will be invited include: USA, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, France, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Kenya, Hong Kong, Argentina, Italy, Japan, China, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Canada, Philippines, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Uruguay, Georgia, Namibia, Romania, South Korea, Belgium, Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Netherlands, Cook Islands, and American Samoa. For those fans from American Samoa this will be a unique opportunity to see the Talavalu play. This will be a first for Talavalu if they participate and AWS anticipates American Samoan fans will be in large attendance to support their team as will other Pacific Islanders including Independent Samoa supporters, many of whom live in Hawaii. Unlike virtually all other Rugby-related tournaments and events worldwide noted for the sport’s fun “beer-drinking culture”, the ALOHA WORLD SEVENS organizers will NOT serve alcoholic beverages in any of their official events and activities because of their specific youth Under-20 participant demographic. “We have an obligation to ensure our competition is not marred by intoxicated, disruptive or unruly fans because of the presence of many families with young children,” McKay Schwenke concluded. He will oversee all AWS tournament field functions. To ensure a higher standard of play and officiating, top referees for the AWS tournament certified by the IRB or USA Rugby will be flown in from outside Hawai’i. USA Rugby is assisting in selecting the best qualified officials for the tournament. Schwenke noted “we are using the AWS international tournament as a stepping stone to highlight the non-contact Keiki Olympic Flag Rugby we plan to introduce to Hawai’i schools and various communities in the months leading up to our tournament. The objective is to develop better motor skills among Hawai’i’s children and youth in all through the various facets of the sport of rugby,” he added. In his current capacity as Vice President of Adult Friends for Youth (AFY), McKay is passionate about adopting various forms of rugby – Sevens Rugby, Touch Rugby and regular tackle rugby – to promote health, wellness and increasing physical activity to help combat obesity, overweight and other health issues among children. ALOHA WORLD SEVENS tickets will go on sale in November on Ticketmaster.com web site and through their worldwide offices, at the ALOHA WORLD SEVENS web site at www.AWSrugby.com and also at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. AWS EARLY BIRD TICKET PRICING: AWS Day Passes purchased by December 31, 2013, will be: EARLY BIRD GENERAL ADMISSION (SIDELINE OPEN SEATING) • $25 for Adults and $15 for Juniors (aged 5-11) on Thursday, June 5, 2014 • $25 for Adults and $15 for Juniors on Friday, June 6, 2014 • $35 for Adults and $30 for Juniors on Saturday, June 7, 2014 $70 for Adults and $40 for Juniors for 3-Day Combo Passes - June 5-7, 2014 EARLY BIRD RESERVED VIP 3-DAY COMBO PASSES (CLUB LEVEL) • $120 for Adults and $90 for Juniors for 3-Day Combo Pass VIP reserved seating WITHOUT food and beverage service • $490 for Adults and $370 for Juniors for 3-day Combo Pass VIP reserved seating WITH continuous food and beverage service included AWS Tickets can be pre-booked at www.AWSrugby.com ticket sales web site link for best seating options. All AWS ticket prices will increase from January 1, 2014, when the AWS Early Bird ticket specials expire. All questions and inquiries should be directed to [email protected] By Bob Hogue
With the 2016 Summer Olympics only a little more than a year away, it’s exciting to see a new Olympic sport coming to Hawaii this week. The sport is Rugby Sevens, and the event is the Aloha World Sevens International Rugby Tournament. “Sevens Rugby has been added to the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That’s an indication of the growing popularity of the sport,” says Reg Schwenke, president of Aloha World Sevens. “It’s now the fastest-growing sport in the U.S.” The Sevens tournament at Aloha Stadium this Friday and Saturday (March 20-21) will feature some of the best U20 (under age 20) teams from Hawaii, New Zealand and Canada. “Sevens (seven players a side) is a very fast game, a much higher-scoring game than traditional (15-a-side) rugby,” Schwenke explains. “Sevens requires a lot of speed. In Hawaii, many of the players may have been football players — typically, wide receivers and running backs do really well.” This is the second year that the prestigious tournament has been held in Hawaii. Last year’s inaugural event was held at Kapiolani Park, with Honolulu Titans winning the men’s championship (beating Kahuku in the finals), while the top New Zealand high school team won the women’s title. “Our goal in moving it to Aloha Stadium is to continue to build the prestige of the tournament. (Eventually), we want to hold a world championship in the sport here,” Schwenke says. “Both the World Rugby and USA Rugby associations have been very supportive of our plans.”
Schwenke called me from Australia, but he has strong ties to the Islands, including a stint as a reporter at the old Honolulu Advertiser. His brother McKay serves as tournament director. McKay’s son (Reg’s nephew) is former Kahuku high school football great Kona Schwenke, who played collegiately at Notre Dame and now has a spot on the Oakland Raiders roster. “Kona grew up playing rugby, that was his base sport,” his uncle says. “Many youngsters in the Kahuku and Laie area grow up with the sport.” Rugby is popular especially among Pacific Islanders, with enormous pride in the sport shown throughout the South Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia — as well as Africa and Europe. The movie Invictus, starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, was a huge smash globally a few years ago. USA Rugby teams continue to grow in prominence, and American teams are often ranked in the top 20 in the world. “We feel this tournament represents an enormous opportunity for our Hawaii athletes to be on the USA team, plus this tournament provides great international exposure,” Schwenke says. “I personally feel that our top teams from Hawaii can compete with anyone from the U.S.” Teams from Maui and Hawaii island will join the top teams from Oahu in the Aloha Sevens tournament. As an additional highlight, the 7 p.m. feature game Friday will be an international matchup of 15-a-side teams. “We’ve got the Hawaiian State Rugby 15s champions from Kahuku (ranked ninth in the U.S.) against St. Anne’s Secondary School from Ontario, Canada,” Schwenke says. “We think it will be a great tournament, and we encourage fans to come out and support their favorites and also learn about this exciting sport.” [email protected] |