Nyika: Heavy weight of health concerns proving more stressful for my parents

Olympic medal prospect David Nyika says our response to the coronavirus threat is more important than the Olympics being delayed.

The Hamilton heavyweight boxer will have to wait a year to make his Olympic debut after this week’s decision to turn Tokyo 2020 into Tokyo 2021.

But Nyika, who qualified recently and would be an automatic selection in the New Zealand team, said the right decisions were being made regarding the delay and New Zealand’s lockdown, with health being the major priority.

‘‘It’s not personally worrying for me – because I don’t think I’m one of the more at-risk people; I could probably knock it on the head pretty good, but for those people that are more susceptible, I’m worried for them.

‘‘Both my parents are working in healthcare – my dad’s a pharmacist, my mum does physio for kids with special needs and elderly people.

‘‘It’s more stressful for them – and people like them who are working in those sensitive environments.’’

Nyika has been in selfisolation since returning from his silver medalwinning displays at the Asia-Oceania Olympic Games boxing qualifiers in Jordan earlier this month.

‘‘I only saw my dad after qualifying for the Olympics a couple of days ago,’’ he said on Tuesday. ‘‘Couldn’t

‘‘It could help strengthen marriages and family units,’’ he says. ‘‘Strong marriages and relationships between parents and kids are the backbone of society. I’m not saying I’m glad this has happened … but if you’re going to take one thing out of it, this is an opportunity to work on those.’’

For the record, Willis is not distraught over the postponement of the Olympics until 2021. He saw it coming a while back and still hopes to make a fifth Games appearance his career swansong.

He believes the looming Olympics have given him ‘‘an extra lease of life’’, feels fitter this year than he was last and says post-coronavirus he’ll think about assessing the realities of another 12 months running the four-lapper.

Meantime, life in lockdown continues relatively normally for the running man.

‘‘The idea of being isolated from community is not new to us. We go to training camps in Europe and don’t know anybody. Our family is well equipped emotionally to handle this.

‘‘I can run out of my house and head into the trails and not see a soul on a two-hour run. I can’t have training partners or my wife driving along next to me, and can’t access the gym. But this time of the year is all pretty much volume, and this is as good a place as anywhere.

‘‘We’re also trying to utilise this time to help people. We’ve got 115 people we coach online stuck at home who can’t be part of running groups. We’re reaching out to those we care about who may not have quite the social network in their midst.’’

As for the Games’ historic postponement, Willis says it’s worth stepping back and understanding the ‘‘moment’’ we’re all in.

‘‘When we reflect back in 20 years’ time this will be a major piece of world history … Though people are losing their lives, their jobs, for those of us fortunate to have our health and still be able to pay bills there’s an opportunity to focus on what’s important, spend quality time with the family and get our priorities back in order.’’