Story audio is generated using AI<\/p>\n
When unbeaten boxing prospect Gary van Staden fights, he doesn\u2019t do it alone \u2014 he has his twin sister Jada, a national sprinter, in his corner. <\/p>\n
The 23-year-olds and Jada\u2019s boyfriend, former South African heavyweight champion Keaton Gomes, who is Gary\u2019s stablemate and friend, are a tight unit. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf one\u2019s got a fight coming up, we all three are in it together,\u201d said Jada, pronounced Jay-da. \u201cIt\u2019s not like one person is sitting there and everyone\u2019s having fun and you\u2019re just like, \u2018oh no, I can\u2019t do this because I have a fight\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
Gary, a super-middleweight, takes on Nicolas Kasongo Nzengu in his next bout on the undercard of Kevin Lerena\u2019s Knockout Chaos 2 tournament at the Galleria in Sandton on Saturday night. <\/p>\n
\u201cSame, same, but different,\u201d Jada replied when asked to describe their similarities and differences. \u201cGary\u2019s more the happy, crazy, last-minute, plans nothing, forgets everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary said: \u201cShe\u2019s got her ducks in a row better than I do. I think our sports give a good description of how similar but far apart we are. We\u2019re both very disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n
She always used to win. She won [age-group] nationals like seven years in a row and then I always used to come like fourth, fifth, sixth. Then I went to boxing, started winning, and I was like, \u2018oh, this is nice\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2014 \u00a0Gary van Staden <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s dilly [because] he wants to get hit in the face,\u201d quipped Jada, the older of the two. <\/p>\n
\u201cBy 43-seconds,\u201d Gary pointed out. <\/p>\n
They\u2019re competitive too. The two, born three months premature, have always excelled at sport, with Jada winning provincial selection across a few codes at school, from tennis to netball. <\/p>\n
Gary played rugby, turning out as scrumhalf, flyhalf and right wing and making a provincial team at under-13. \u201cI was good, when we were all the same size, but then I got so small I got pummelled by the okes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before puberty, Jada dominated Gary and their brother Slayden, younger by two years. \u201cTennis, hockey, any sport there was, we used to lose to Jada. I used to hate it. I was a head shorter than my sister,\u201d recalled Gary. <\/p>\n
Both did athletics, with Jada excelling in the 400m hurdles and Gary focusing on the 800m. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe always used to win. She won [age-group] nationals like seven years in a row and then I always used to come like fourth, fifth, sixth. Then I went to boxing, started winning, and I was like, \u2018oh, this is nice\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary reckoned Jada could have excelled in the ring. \u201cShe can box and she hits hard. Sometimes she walks past and hits me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was like \u2018why is my brother doing this and why am I dating someone who\u2019s doing this?\u2019 It\u2019s very stressful.<\/p>\n
\u2014 \u00a0Jada van Staden<\/p>\n
Jada turned to her brother with a laugh: \u201cIf I was a boy, I\u2019d have taken your \u20180\u2032 [handed him his first professional defeat].\u201d<\/p>\n
Jada, who has run for South Africa at the World Relays, was forced to abandon hurdling because of a back injury, but she\u2019s learning to pace the 400m. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes some getting used to because every time you change how you run,\u201d said Jada, who spent a year at the University of Washington in Seattle in 2023. <\/p>\n
The twins are following in their attorney father\u2019s footsteps, both studying law, and Gary and his father build cars together. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt keeps your mind off of things, especially in training camp. Your mind goes through scenarios you don\u2019t want to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jada admitted it wasn\u2019t easy watching Gary and Gomes, especially when they fought on the same bill in April. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was like \u2018why is my brother doing this and why am I dating someone who\u2019s doing this?\u2019 It\u2019s very stressful,\u201d said Jada. <\/p>\n
But she\u2019ll be ringside on Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Story audio is generated using AI When unbeaten boxing prospect Gary van Staden fights, he doesn\u2019t do it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[286785,703,222688,49,48,286783,286784,82],"class_list":["post-817995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-400m-sprinter","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-prospect","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-gary-van-staden","tag-jada-van-staden","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}