“Coming from such a small town, there’s so much love, and I honestly couldn’t be more prouder to represent Gisborne on the world stage.”
Gisborne Airport had a busy Monday afternoon with friends and family eagerly awaiting the arrival of Commonwealth games judoka gold medalist Sydnee Andrews. Photo/ Leonie Sheehan.
Andrews is back in Gisborne for a week visiting schools and the judo club and catching up with friends and family.
She will return to Camberley Judo Club in London to prepare for her next competition in mid-September – the Hungary Grand Slam in Budapest.
“Hopefully I do keep the winning streak going, but that’s obviously short-term. Long-term, I want to medal at the LA Olympics,” said Andrews, who also won bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
“I’m gonna do it, then come back home to another awesome welcome.”
Andrews said she had struggled being based so far away, unable to be there for her family.
“I lost my oma (Dutch for grandmother) at the end of February and one wish she told me was to not come back … to continue training and to continue [chasing] my dream. I know she was there on the mat with me.”
Among those at the airport was her first judo coach Jason King, who has known her since she started in the Gisborne club’s peewee classes at age 5.
King said he was impressed with how she fought at the Commonwealth Games.
“As a coach you’re sort of like, you know, could have done a bit better than that, but this time I watched the three fights and she wasn’t going home without the gold medal.”
King said he started to see potential in Andrews when she was about 12.
“The little bit of fight came out of her in the tournament competition fighting … so we started to push her a little bit more.”
She was about 16 when she went to Japan to compete and beat a Japanese judoka in the final.
“We started going … this is your sport girl.”
He recalled sitting Andrews down to talk about her judo future.
“She says, ‘oh I’ll probably do judo for another few years and then I’m going to quit and I want to go dancing’.
“I looked her straight in the eye, and went, ‘yeah, nah, that’s not the answer I wanted’.”
King said Andrews was a great role model for the kids.
“I went to judo last week and they go, ‘did you see Sydnee? She won the Commonwealth Games’.
“So I go, ‘yeah, I’m still pretty tired from staying up all night watching it live, mate’ … there were a few tears in my lounge that night.”
Andrews’ aunties Deb Murphy and Tiff Jefferies were also there to welcome her home.
Murphy recalled Andrews going to her house when she was about 10 and saying, “I’m going to get the Olympic gold”.
“Yeah, right Sydnee,” Murphy replied at the time. “But now I reckon she’s gonna get it.
“And I said, ‘If you get a gold, you can flip me.’ So she might still do that.”
Jefferies said Andrews had always been hard-working.
“I just love seeing what an articulate professional she has blossomed into. She is fiercely determined, which I love about her.”