The team, who secured the bronze medal at the 2022 World Butchers’ Challenge, will compete in the competition in Paris in March 2025.
The team will once again be led by Riki Kerekere as team captain, with Reuben Sharples from Aussie Butcher New Lynn, Dan Klink from Mangawhai Meat Shop, Corey White from Skills4Work, Luka Young from Pak’nSave Kaitaia, and Cherise Redden from Pak’nSave Glen Innes set to return.
They will be joined by new team member Samantha Weller of New World Ravenswood who joins the team as a reserve. She previously took out the title of World Champion Butcher Apprentice at the competition in 2018.
Kerekere says the selection process was difficult as “we were spoilt for choice with a long list of incredible applicants”.
“Ultimately, the selection committee has stuck with the same team with the exciting addition of Samantha as our reserve. We’re battle-hardened from the last competition and we know what we need to do as a team to get from third to first,” he says.
“Make no mistake, we’re there to win and we’ll be preparing accordingly,” he adds.
The team announcement comes one year after the Hellers Sharp Blacks secured the bronze medal in last year’s competition in Sacramento, USA.
Dubbed by many as the ‘Olympics of Meat’, the ninth World Butchers’ Challenge will take place at Paris Arena Sud 6, part of the Paris Exhibition Centre, currently preparing to welcome the world’s best handball and weightlifting athletes for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The 2025 World Butchers’ Challenge is expected to grow to 18 competing teams, up from the 13 nations represented in Sacramento last year. Each national team of six members will have three hours and thirty minutes to artistically craft a themed display of value-added cuts, using a side of beef, a side of pork, a whole lamb, and five chickens.
