Queanbeyan Muay Thai fighter Josh Tonna is easing the pain of his recent loss in Singapore by walking 42 kilometres a day in hotel quarantine in Sydney, while raising money for Lifeline Canberra.
Rather than passing the time binging on Netflix as he would be perfectly entitled to, Josh is repeatedly walking the 10 steps from his hotel room door to the window and back, until he has reached 500km.
Josh walks from 6am to midnight, breaking for lunch and dinner; to date (21 October), he has clocked up 332km.
He is halfway through his two-week Australian quarantine and away from his wife and two kids, but that’s just one part of the story.
He arrived in Singapore on Saturday 3 October and was immediately separated from his coach and cameraman and escorted to his Singapore hotel quarantine, where he was only allowed out for an hour a day.
“Usually you get time to explore the city and talk with the other fighters,” Josh said. “It was a whole different experience this time.”
While in quarantine, Josh mentally battled his championship loss, missing his family and lamenting the Raiders’ semi-final loss.
“Coming off the loss, it just wasn’t the result I wanted. I wanted to shift the focus, move my body so I didn’t downward spiral, eat badly and put on weight. I didn’t want to go down that road.
“I wanted to do something and that progressed to wanting to do something for the community, so I reached out to Lifeline and they were happy for me to.
“They’ve done a phenomenal job during COVID, people are in quarantine and getting depressed.
“I know a little bit about what they’re going through.”
Josh is looking forward to coming home to Queanbeyan, relieving his wife of the domestic duties and focusing on the next fight.
“And fresh air – how good will that be?”
To help Josh reach his target of $5,000 donate on the link below:
personalchallenge.gofundraise.com.au/page/Josh-12682313
So far, he has raised $3,310.
