‘IT’S MY HAPPY PLACE’ - DAN CARTER KICKING GOALS FOR KIDS IN THE PACIFIC
The All Black legend and now UNICEF ambassador launches the Beat Dan Carter kicking challenge.
While he was a bit wary of how his legs would hold up, Dan Carter managed to kick 273 goals at Eden Park on Tuesday in one hour. But the All Black legend wants all aspiring kickers out there to beat his total as part of his Beat Dan Carter campaign for UNICEF.
Carter, a UNICEF ambassador, challenged others to try and beat his total as a way of raising money for his DC10 Fund. It was established by Carter in 2022, directly supporting UNICEF's water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme for children in the Pacific, where sanitation-related diseases are one of the leading causes of death for under-fives.
The partnership will enable UNICEF, alongside the New Zealand government's international development cooperation programme, to deliver water and sanitation programmes to some of the hardest to reach places in the Pacific.
The 112-test All Black, who scored 1598 points in his 12-year international career, admitted that he'd enlisted the help of his family to practise for the challenge.
"Over the school holidays I picked up my kicking load quite a lot and to be honest my children were sick of fetching my balls through my kicking sessions…probably the worst school holidays that they've had," he said.
"It's good to finally get to this event and I'm sure these old legs will be able to kick for an hour."
Carter slotted most of his tally with both his favoured left foot, but also landed a few with his right in a nod to the last ever kick as an All Black. His conversion of Beauden Barrett's try in the dying moments of the 2015 Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham secured a 34-17 win, making it the first time a team had won two World Cups in a row.
These days, Carter has spent time travelling to communities in Vanuatu and Fiji, where access to clean water is limited. He explained that it wasn't just a matter of getting something to drink; going to collect water from a source sometimes kilometres away is a job traditionally carried out by women and girls, leading many to drop out of school early to simply have time to help run households.
"This is a really important cause that is close to my heart," Carter said, who admitted that kicking was definitely the only part of being on a professional rugby field that he really missed.
"Since I've retired, I've often watched games of rugby and there's not one part of me that wishes I was out there. But when it comes to kicking, it's like meditation for me. It's my happy place, I love going down to the local park with my bag of rugby balls and just kicking. I'm going to enjoy it and kick for as long as possible."
It's Carter's second kicking challenge, after his 24-hour kickathon that was also at Eden Park two years ago. He passed his target of kicking 1598 goals, eventually reaching 1637 successful shots and raising more than half a million dollars.
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2024-05-01T00:51:43Z dg43tfdfdgfd