Christchurch 9-year-old Sarah Wadsworth already holds two disc golf distance throwing world titles – and she’ll soon be competing for another at the world junior champs in the United States.
Sarah will take part in the under-10s competition in Oklahoma, where she will be the youngest competitor.
The Dallington resident is confident her skills and determination will take her far in the sport.
“It’s going to be a career one day, but at the moment it’s (about) ... having fun.”
After learning about disc golf through a friend, Sarah picked up a frisbee and discovered what the growing sport was all about.
Her father Paul has supported her throughout her journey so far and also developed a passion for the sport.
“We found it was a fantastic game to play as a family and that’s why we went out and bought a starter pack that we could all go out and play together.”
Paul said it has taken a lot of passion and dedication to get where Sarah is today.
“Trying to learn the actual idiosyncrasy of throwing one of these and getting the maximum distance or the best flight out of it and how the angles work and how the disc work, it’s been rapid, we’ve been going just over two years.”
Sarah competed in the US last year and met some disc golf pros there, including her current mentor and sponsor Kona Montgomery.
Sarah Wadsworth with disc golf pro Scott Stokely. Photo: Supplied
Her family has been approached by a number of potential sponsors, but Sarah said she connected with Kona.
Kona really hit us because she wanted to mentor me as a child, which I thought was just so unreal that, like, I would have someone mentoring me and I would be going to world champs and maybe there’s a chance I could win.”
However, getting to international events is expensive, especially for a primary school pupil..
