A week after the death of her father, champion powerlifter Asheigh Hoeta made good her promise to him that she would once again be crowned New Zealand arm wrestling champion.
Hoeta’s father, musician Ashley Hoeta, died in October following a two-year battle with emphysema.
Two months before he died, Hoeta had promised him she would bring the arm wrestling championship trophy back home, just as she did on her first attempt in 2022.
But she was not as confident as she had made out to be.
“I was lying in bed and I thought to myself, I physically don’t know if I’m able to pull this off,” Hoeta said.
Fortunately, her pledge to her father helped her maintain her focus while she trained for the October 28 event in Hamilton.
That focus also helped her cope with her father’s death, just a week before the competition.
But then, at the post-competition celebration where she was crowned Women’s Open champ, the blinkers started to come off and she began to mourn for the mentor she had lost.
“My Dad’s favourite song came on and I started bawling. Like, who plays L.A.B.’s For the Love of Jane at a pub?”
Her response was understandable.
It was the same song she arranged for him to sing on stage with the band themselves at New Plymouth’s Bowl of Brooklands in January 2022.
It was also the last song her dad had sung in full, at a close friend’s funeral in April 2021.
Hoeta, who has set a string of national powerlifting records, has been quick to put her arm wrestling fame to good use.
Following an invitation to be an advocate for Mike King’s I Am Hope Foundation, Hoeta charged $2 per arm wrestle for all who dared in New Plymouth last week to raise money for Gumboot Friday.
Hoeta, who faced her own mental health challenges while caring for her father, said a cousin of hers had died by suicide in 2015 and she wanted to help make sure others didn’t have to go through such pain.
“Doing what I’m doing, it becomes worth it if I am able to prevent one person’s suffering,” she said.
Emma Andrews is a journalism student based in Taranaki.