Why the sky’s the limit for this teen fighting machine

Meet the Sunshine fighter so good she’s exhausted all her Australian opponents, now eyeing off the world stage with an aim to be number 1. What is driving this talented teen?

Coast fighter Skylah Hamill wants to add a world gold medal to her incredible medal haul in 2020.

MARTIAL ARTS: It’s 3.50am. Unlike most girls her age, Skylah Hamill will bound out of bed, her smile already alive… as she jumps straight into joggers for a 2km road run.

Come 4.30am, she’ll be kicking pads with the full force of her frame, sweating up a storm for 90 heart-pumping minutes out of the Sunshine Coast Thai Boxing Centre.

Later that afternoon, the teenage sensation will do another 90-minute session.

To be the best, you have to train the best.

“I’ve trained a lot of world champions in my time, but I’ve never seen someone work so hard,” coach Joe Hilton said.

Hilton is a man who has been turning youngsters into steeled fighting machines for the past 27 years.

Skylah Hamill with her trainer Joe Hilton.

“She’s just one of those exceptional kids. Her attitude to training is second to none,” he said.

“I can tell her to do anything and she’ll listen, just like a big sponge.”

The 13-year-old thai boxer is so good, she’s exhausted all of her Australian opponents, and only has one narrow loss to her name from 17 bouts.

In 2019 she finished third in the IFMA Youth World Championships in Turkey, was crowned the new WKBF Australian Junior Straw Weight Junior Champion and was recently named as a finalist in the Australian Muay Thai awards for female teenage fighter of the year.

Shy and reserved away from the ring, Hamill adopts a Jeckyll and Hyde persona as she steps into it, something that helps keep her radar-like focus.

Skylah Hamill won gold at the recent Thai boxing national championships.

“Going to worlds was pretty cool,” the Kawana Waters State College student said.

“Knowing I was up against the best in the world and holding my own was great.

“I love fighting out of my gym and for my country. And everyone at school is pretty impressed too.”

Hilton said his protege’s ability was matched only by her sheer love of fighting.

The pair have carved out a fighter that is going to improve with age and experience as she climbs the weight divisions.

“She’s beaten everyone. I promote fights and struggle to find her an opponent,” Hilton said.

“The only girl who beat her was bigger and had 74 fights compared to Skylah’s 17.

“She’ll jump in the ring with anyone girls, boys, adults. In the lead-up to a fight she’ll be training 20 hours a week, easily.”

“I don’t find the training hard, I want to do it,” she said.

“Joe helps me get better, to stay on track and I love it. So if it helps me get better, I’ll do it.

“I want to go back to worlds and go for gold, that’s my goal.”

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