Invercargill aerobics athlete Dani Kramers will head to the FISAF Sport Aerobics and Fitness world championships in the Czech Republic at the end of October.
Invercargill aerobics athlete Dani Kramers has been practising her world championships routines so much this year, she’ll sometimes go to sleep thinking about them.
“It helps me get to sleep. I just visualise the whole routine – it’s kind of my whole life at the moment.”
Dani will be part of a New Zealand team representing Invercargill’s Empire Aerobics and Dunedin’s Peak Aerobics Academy at the FISAF Sport Aerobics and Fitness world championships in the Czech Republic at the end of October.
The ILT Academy Southland Foundation Year athlete will compete in the individual section and link with Invercargill’s Matilda Stevens in the pairs competition.
It will be her third time competing at the pinnacle event, with previous best finishes of 10th and fifth in 2022 and 2023, respectively, with last year’s event in Brazil having to be cancelled due to flooding.
“I’ve learnt how to cope with the stress of it. When you are over there it’s a massive event. Now I know what to expect.”
Preparation has been ramping up throughout the year, including wins in the individual and pair at both the Southland and Otago regionals, followed by victory in the individual and pair at the recent national championships. Earlier in the year there was a win in the pair and a second placing in the individual at the Pacific Open.
“It’s been going really well. We’ve got a couple of group trainings coming up with a lot of the Worlds athletes from here and Dunedin, which is good because we can watch each other and cheer each other on.”
Dani and Matilda have been competing together since the start of the year, as well as contesting the individual category.
“There’s a lot of training and getting to know each other. To look good you’ve got to be in time and you’ve got to be moving the same and the different skill elements you have to do have to be in time. It does take a lot of practice,” Dani said.
“You have to know each other and you have to trust each other because there’s some lifts in there that are scary if you didn’t trust the other person.”
Dani, who had been dancing since she was three-years-old, has been competing in aerobics since trying a ‘have a go’ session in Year 6. She caught the eye of Dunedin-based Kirsty Snoep, who is one of her current coaches.
She’s enjoyed her first year as part of the ILT Academy Southland programme, which aims to support many of Southland’s aspiring athletes with mental skills, athlete life, nutrition and strength and conditioning at the Mike Piper Training Centre.
“(The Academy has) been great. The workshops are really helpful, especially the ones about mindset. The gym is amazing, it’s a facility where I can train and improve.”
Lessons learnt with the Academy will be more than useful given the number of unknowns when Dani lines up in Prague.
“The category changes all the time, there’s new people coming into it, there’s people going out of it. There’s so much improvement for everyone. I’m hoping to make the semifinals, if not the finals, that’s my main goal.”