Two silvers and a bronze in boxing? Not acceptable

Winning two silver medals and a bronze at the 2019 Pacific Games is not what we expected from our Team Fiji men’s boxing team.

There was high expectation on our boxers to do well after Winston Hill’s silver medal win at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. Although there was a setback in preparations after the death of trainer Napoleon Taumoepeau, that however should not be deemed as an excuse. There was assistance offered and even legendary Australian boxing trainer Johnny Lewis had stepped in to assist our boxers and took three of our medal prospects for a training stint in Sydney.

Not only that, but while there, they had participated in competitions as well.

They were Hill, Jone Koroilagilagi and Nathan Singh; out of them only Koroilagilagi came out with a silver medal, Hill lost his first fight on disqualification while Singh did not make the team to Samoa. Fiji Amateur Boxing Association (FABA) executives should come out publicly and explain why Singh did not make it to Samoa since they had invested in him.

Interestingly, why weren’t flyweight Zoheb Ali, a silver medal winner, and bronze medallist Elia Rokobuli allowed to travel to Sydney instead.

They probably would have done better if they were given the opportunity to train in world class facilities and have regular fights there as well.

From the first South Pacific Games in 1963 in Suva, our best record was at the 1966 Games in Noumea, New Caledonia, where we won six boxing gold medals.

Trained by Hector Hatch, we had gold medal winners like Veremo Dikidikilati, Subash Chand and Sailosi Vatubua, whose grandson Renold Quinlan, is the former IBO world super middleweight champion. At the 1979 South Pacific Games in Suva, it was Joe Nitiva and Kamisese Vaubula who won gold while Anthony Naidu took the silver.

Then again at the 1999 Games in Guam, where Mohammed Arif and Peni Qarau won gold medals. In the 2003 Games in Suva, it was Osea Nakacagi and super heavyweight Inia Vuli who won gold while Metuisela Coriakula took out the silver medal. That was the last of our gold medal wins at the Games and that was 16 years ago.

Today, a lot of soul searching must be done on where we went wrong.

We need to be asking the hard questions and FABA executives need to look at it in a constructive way, if the sport is to move another notch higher and bring an end to our gold medal drought.

We cannot solely blame the trainer Nic Fuata since he was appointed in the eleventh hour to take on the job.

Instead, we should be grateful for the work he has done so far.

Probably, the Ministry of Youth and Sports assistance in the acquiring of the old PWD Canteen (former gym) in Walu Bay and taking amateur boxing back to its former home is a step in the right direction. But now the onus lies on FABA, to make sure that a four-year strategic plan is in place, if we are to win that elusive gold medal at the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands.