Killarney is a contestant on the fifth season of Survivor SA
Rynfield resident and martial arts expert Killarney Jones (45) is one of the 20 contestants on the fifth season of Survivor South Africa.
The show aired on M-Net on January 19.
“When I heard that I was one of the contestants I was so ecstatic, I couldn’t stop smiling.
“I was so driven and immediately went into competition mode in my head and my heart,” said Jones.
She added that she entered Survivor to win a million rand, so she can buy a house for her mom and take care of her siblings.
To prepare for the competition she walked 6km to and from the gym, and trained for two hours every day for strength of body and mind
“I used a cross-training programme of my own: as though I was training for a very important martial arts competition,’ she said.
She ran on the treadmill for an hour, did resistance training and swam for a half an hour every day.
“Trying not to stress about the alliances being formed and predicting situations ahead of me and outcomes was very stressful,” said Jones.
“It’s the mind games I found the most stressful, temporary trust (the only kind you can really have in the given circumstances) was very hard for me.”
She added that the easiest part of the competition was the challenges.
“I love physical challenges and games and I love winning them,” she said.
“Playing hard is second nature to me, just as when I used to enter a martial art fight arena, the adrenaline of an approaching fight drove me and excited me.”
Jones added that she also loved meeting new and different people and enjoyed cooking strange sea food for her tribe mates to eat.
She started practising karate at the age of 11 and got two black belts, for Shotokan and Shorin-Ryu, before the age of 20.
“I arrived in South Africa and participated in the Senior World Karate Championships, at Sun City, in 1996,” she said.
She has mastered kung-fu, tai chi, and the tiger style, and has won a number of tournaments
Jones is also passionate about cooking, painting for people who appreciate art and playing the guitar.
She grew up all over Africa, in countries like Malawi, Botswana, Zambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Somalia, to mention only a few, and moved to Benoni in her early 20s.
She attended Benoni Technical College and, after completing her N6, was asked to lecture fine arts.
For health and fitness tips visit her blog, Killarney Jones – Way of the Urban Warrior, at www.killarneyjones.co.za
