CSB - Milika Nathan - World Bowls Champion of Champions

Tongan bowler Milika Nathan created history in Auckland on Saturday, winning the women's singles title at the World Bowls Champion of Champions in extreme conditions at the Browns Bay Bowling Club in North Harbour.

The Northcote Intermediate School teacher proved her winning skills to claim the title, coming from staying within the top eight to upset defending world champion Anne Nunes of the United States of America.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, it's time to head to school now. In fact,
we're going to Northcote Intermediate School. A teacher there last
weekend became a world bowling champion Tongue and bowler Milika
Nathan Millie Nathan created history by beating the current world
champion and news out of the United States, she joins
me this morning. Congratulations Melika, Hi, thank you fantastic and

(00:26):
world champion. How does it feel?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
It feels good. It sounds a bit crazy, a lot
of a lot of messages, a lot of people congratulating me.
It's pretty crazy.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
How were How were the kids when you went to
school on Monday after becoming a world champion at the
Champion Champion tournament on the on the weekend. How did
the kids react?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
They were they're putting about when they saw me on
TV and they well like stood up and cheered and congratulating, clapped.
It was cute.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
It's fantastic. So you representing Tonga. How long have you
been playing bowls? Malika?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Seven years? Seven years in two years for Tonga.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
How did you get into bowls?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
My dad plays bowls and I just went for like
a roll up one of those fun tournaments with my
brother and then and then we liked it and then
we joined up to have a little goat.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, and you're now a world champion. Yeah. And of
course leading up leading up to beating the current world champion,
I mean you had some did you get some tough
games as well as you know, just close ones?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh? Yeah, every game was really tough. Most of my
games went into tiebreakers to get through the semi. To
get through the SEMII, we went to a tiebreaker and
then we tied the tiebreaker, we have to have extra end.
That was again against England. But yeah, every game was
really close.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Great the whole tournament and leading up to the finals weekend,
I mean the weather was pretty good. Then suddenly the
weather sort of became quite wet on the weekend to
make more difficult.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah. Yeah, I hate playing in the ring because I
feel like you're just focusing on trying to make sure
you get through all the puddles instead of like getting
your aim right. But yeah, I guess it worked out right.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, absolutely so, Melika, where too from here?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
For you?

Speaker 1 (02:28):
What's next?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I'm not sure. There's nationals in like a month for
New Zealand and then hopefully Tonga can go to more
world tournaments because it's pretty hard for Tongya to get
to most of the world tournaments. We got to go
to this because I love here in New Zealand. But yeah,
hopefully we get to go to more world tournaments. Hopefully

(02:54):
Bowls is in Commonwealth Games and Tongua gets to go.
Be cool.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
And what was the action like from Tonga itself? Did
you get much feedback from from the islands.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Uh? Yeah, I got an email from the Prime Minister,
a lot of calls from like PACIFICA media, So yeah,
it's been cool, a lot of.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Support, fantastic. Well agreed again Melika, congratulations creating history becoming
a world champion. Well done.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Thank you.