CLAIRE Dwyer has proudly represented her country in roller derby.
The Coffs Coast Derby team member played for Team Australia at the recent Junior Roller Derby Association World Cup in Brisbane.
She was part of the Australian team that took home the bronze medal, after defeating New Zealand 213-211 in a nail-biting contest.
The Australian side faced off against USA, Sweden, Denmark, Mexico, and New Zealand in their pool games.
It’s been a rapid rise to represent her country for the player known as “Glare Bear”, having only been playing the sport for two years.
The 17-year-old from Macksville played the position of blocker for the Australian junior team, whose job is to stop the opposing jammer (point scorer) from getting past as well as running offence for their own jammer.
The Australian junior representative expressed how much it meant to represent her country.
“It meant a lot just because of the time and effort I put into it, especially because I haven’t been skating for very long,” she said.
“It just meant a lot to show my commitment, and not just me but all my coaches and all my team, just to show that they’ve made such an impact,” she said.
The bronze medallist shared her highlights of the World Cup.
“Our America game was really good, we worked really well as a team and responded well to that really high level the Americans brought, so that was really good,” she said.
“And when we beat New Zealand for bronze, we actually thought we had lost, because they put up our points after the whistle went, so just seeing that on the scoreboard was great.
“It was a really good game to play in because of how close the score was, and we never thought that oh we have this, or that this was definitely ours.”
By Aiden BURGESS
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