Entering the ring at the Olympic Games is the dream of every New Zealand elite amateur boxer at some time in their career. 

Boxing New Zealand Heavyweight David Nyika, will become just the 31st Kiwi pugilist to attain their Olympic Dream, since Charlie Purdy boxed in the featherweight division at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.

It is well documented that three New Zealand boxers has won Olympic medals. Ted Morgan won New Zealand's first ever Olympic Gold Medal, when he triumphed in the welterweight ranks, at the 1928 Olympics held in Amsterdam. Kevin Barry junior earned a Silver medallion in Los Angles at the 1984 Olympics, with David Tua rounding out the trifecta of Boxing New Zealand Olympic glory with a Bronze medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

Just three other New Zealand boxers, in David Jackson (1976) Garth da Silva (1996) and Alexis Pritchard (2012) have won an Olympic bout.

The magnitude of Olympic qualification, for the pugilists from the far end of the world, is shown by the nine Kiwi boxers who have just returned home from the Asia/Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament held in Amman, Jordan.

The journey to Amman was punctuated by the cancellation of the Asia/Oceania qualification event in Wuhan, China - with the New Zealand side forced to twice travel halfway around the world, before they entered the ring in Jordan.

BNZ Head Coach Billy Meehan and assistant coach Thomas Rangiawha can be well pleased with their charges performances in Amman. Five victories and three 3-2 paper thin split decisions, show that New Zealand can surely 'punch above its weight' at the highest level in international boxing competition.

David Nyika, was the icing on the cake, in becoming the first BNZ male fighter to qualify for the Olympic Games in sixteen years. First up he dispatched a Syrian opponent before fulfilling his Olympic dream, when he beat the Uzbekistan boxer, to pick up one of the four Olympic heavyweight spots up for grabs in Amman. 

David's fight for the gold medal was a humdinger, with judges awarding his Asian opponent a 4-1 split decision victory. His performance against the 2016 Olympic Silver medalist, showed that the New Zealand heavyweight can mix it with the best in the world.

Jerome Pampellone and Dominic Roe, both cruised into their second fights of the tournament, before coming up against their divisions top seed. Jerome lost out to the current middleweight World Champion with Dominic losing to the Uzbekistan World Championships bronze medalist.  

Middleweight Ryan Scaife could be considered unlucky in his scrap with the Indonesia representative, losing a 3-2, decision which many at ringside thought he had won. Uila Mau'u defeated a Tajikistan boxer by way of a unanimous decision, before tasting defeat against Australian Justis Huni in a quarterfinal contest.

Tasmyn Benny put up a spirited display against legendary Indian double Olympic and six-time world champion, Mary Kom, before dropping a points decision in the flyweight division. Amy Andrews lost her featherweight round of sixteen bout against a strong Japanese boxer. 

Both Troy Garton and Ariane Nicholson, could be considered unlucky not to get the judges nod in their round of sixteen contests. Troy had a epic battle with world class lightweight Raykona Kodirova from Uzbekistan, going head to head throughout the three rounds, before being on the wrong end of a 3-2 point’s decision. The second 3-2 split to go against the New Zealand women's boxers, came in the welterweight division, where Ariane Nicholson fought a Mongolian professional fighter in another contest that was in doubt until the final bell.

Asia/Oceania Olympic Boxing Qualification tournament 3-11 March 2020 Amman, Jordan

F 52kg             Tasmyn Benny           

(R16) - lost to Mary Kom (India) 5-0

F 57kg             Amy Andrew   

(R16) - lost Sena Irie (Japan) 5-0

F 63kg             Troy Garton 

(R16) - lost Raykona Kodirova (Uzbekistan) 3-2

F 69kg             Ariane Nicholson                               

(R16) - lost to Shinetsetseg Uranbileg (Mongolia) 3-2

M 69kg           Dominic Roe

(R32) - defeated KW Chan (Honk Kong) 5-0

(R16) - lost to Bobo-Usma 

M 75kg           Ryan Scaife    

(R 16) - lost to Maikhel Muskita (Indonesia) 3-2

M 81kg           Jerome Pampellone   

(R32) - defeated Ren Umemura (Japan) 4-1

(R 16) - lost to Bekzad Nurdauletov (Kazakhstan) 5-0

M 91kg           David Nyika   

(QF) - defeated Alaa Ghousoon (Syria) 5-0

(Semi-Final) - defeated Sanjar Tursunov (Uzbekistan) 5-0 (Qualified for Olympic Games)

(Final) - lost to Vassiliy Levit (Kazakhstan) 4-1

M 91+kg         Uila Mau'u                                                                 

(R16) - defeated Sivovush Zukhur (Tajikistan) 5-0

(QF) - lost to Justis Huni (Australia) 5-0

Article added: Wednesday 25 March 2020