Our Kiwi karate kid ANDREA’S FIGHT FOR OLYMPIC GOLD

Three years ago, Olympic hopeful Andrea Anacan’s parents worried that their daughter was too focused on the sport she loved to look for love in a different form.

From the age of four, she had been totally committed to karate and was now competing at international competitions, but mum Mary Ann and dad Ellya wondered if it might be time for their daughter to find a partner, settle down and have some children.

“In my mid-twenties, if I wasn’t going hard with karate, I’d be at work or at church,”. “I hadn’t had a boyfriend since I was 21, so my parents were getting worried. My mum would say, ‘I want grandkids,’ and Dad sat me down for a serious talk, saying I’d be happier if I had a partner to share my successes with.”