Kiwi off to World Gumboot Throwing Champs

Kiwi off to World Gumboot Throwing Champs

A Dunedin nurse and a Commonwealth Games medal winner are off to Europe to compete in a very Kiwi-sounding competition.

It's the World Championships of Gumboot Throwing – in Italy – and it's a very serious affair.

Mairead Fox is putting her best feet forward as she prepares to take on the world's top boot throwers.

She's already the national women's gumboot throwing champion – a title she won at the Rural Games in Queenstown in February.

"I've done a bit of throwing, like javelin and stuff at high school, so they said I should enter," she says.

When she's not out hoofing rubber, Fox works as a nurse at Dunedin Hospital. She was brought up on a sheep farm, but says gumboot tossing wasn't something she'd ever tried.

Watch the video for the full 3 News report.