MURWILLUMBAH’S Karen Iwanuscha has been hitting all the right shots on her way to representing Australia at two World Cups at Masters level.

Plying her trade at club level with Murwillumbah and at representative level with Queensland, the player affectionately known as “Ishu” by teammates, returned from the International Masters Hockey Association (IMHA) in Canberra in March with a gold medal, after earning a silver medal in 2014’s World Cup in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Iwanuscha, 53, who represents Australia in the 50s division, has co- captained her Queensland representative side for the past five years, but rates her achievements at consecutive World Cups as surreal.

“Travelling overseas to Rotterdam and coming away with a silver was awesome, but to come back here and win gold on home soil was definitely up there,” she said.

“Having the home crowd and all the other Australian teams there to spur you on made it pretty special.”

Australia was undefeated against the likes of Wales, Ireland, New Zealand and Canada, before toppling Ireland 3-2 in the final.

Despite the side team rarely training together, Iwanuscha said they all slot in together through a core group of players.

The same group represented Australia last year in Melbourne and defeated New Zealand in a Trans-Tasman clash.

It has been a whirlwind rise for the mother of four, who despite taking up hockey in high school, only became serious about going further in the sport over only the past 15 years.

“I was part of local Tweed Border representative sides that went away for titles, but I only started getting into Queensland state sides in my 40s,” Iwanuscha said.

“I’ve represented Queensland since 2006 and have been in the Australian masters team since 2010.”

Iwanuscha plays with daughter, Samantha, at club level and to keep fit, enlists son Brendan for field work on Sundays, cross trains with Dynamic fitness solutions Murwillumbah and runs multiple sprints and time trials.

While happy with her achievements, Iwanuscha doesn’t plan on stopping and aims to represent Australia at a third World Cup in Madrid, Spain, in 2018.