Boxers return
with two bronze medals
by Brian Vitolio
American Samoa
Amateur Boxing Federation's six-man contingent to the event that
doubled as the 2008 Oceania Continental Championships and AIBA
Oceania Olympic Qualification tournament returned with two bronze
medals and a host of experience.
Coming back with
bronze medals for the territory were Francis Mamoe for the light
heavyweight class and Alema Vaele for the middleweight division.
They also made
the boxers of American Samoa look good in the eyes of competitors
that included boxers from around the South Pacific, New Zealand
and Australia after a disastrous showing last year in Apia, Samoa.
The boxing tournament
was also held in Apia, Samoa last week from the 21st to the 25th
of April after the original host Fiji was scratched from holding
it because of the most recent coup in that region. Several sites
were brought forth to host the two-fold tournament including
Australia and Papua New Guinea but Samoa won out as host, thus
the territory was able to send a good complement of boxers that
included one athlete from off island, Fa'amanu Pritchard.
"It was
tough but our boys did real good and we got a lot of compliments
from New Zealand and Australia," recalled ASABF president
Mapu Jamias, "because they were saying to us that this was
not the same American Samoan team from last year.
"So, I want
to tell everybody that boxing is alive and well in American Samoa
and there's more good to come out of it."
Last year they
didn't come back with any medals and were the laughing stock
of the competition because of the performance of their fighters.
But this year,
they took it to their opponents with their best performance coming
from a quarterfinal loss to an Australian in the Super Heavyweight
division.
Henry Tupa'i,
who beat Samoa's South Pacific Games 2007 heavy weight gold medallist
Vaitele Soi in a tournament held locally in February, lost by
a mere point (14-13) to Australian Steven Rudic.
However, Jamias
said that he, a lot of the crowd and AIBA (International Amateur
Boxing Association) president Ching-Kuo Wu of Taiwan felt that
Tupa'i was the winner of that bout.
"AIBA is
offering the Oceania region two wildcard spots for the 2008 Olympics
(in Beijing, China) and I've already submitted his name for one
of those two slots," Jamias explained. "I hand wrote
the AIBA president a request because he sits on the committee
that discusses these two wildcard slots for American Samoa because
he felt that Tupa'i had won that bout."
Jamias went on
to say that Tupa'i should have fought in the heavy weight division
but the ASABF decided to put him in the Super Heavyweight class
because of his speed.
He added that
if they are lucky enough to win a wildcard slot, they will move
Tupa'i to his right weight class.
The six fighters
that represented American Samoa were Tupa'i in the Super Heavy
weight division, Pritchard and Francis Mamoe in the light heavy
weight category, Alema Vaele in the middleweight division and
Imo Aieti and Togafau Aieti in the welter weight class.
Overall 81 fighters
from nine countries vied for 11 gold medals and also 11 spots
in the upcoming Olympic Games. Only the gold medal winners advanced
to this summer's Games.
Of the 11, Australia
took nine golds while Samoa and Papua New Guinea won the other
two.
Australia had
21 fighters competing, 19 from Samoa, New Zealand with 11, followed
by Tonga with 10, American Samoa with six, five from Fiji and
then three each from Nauru, Tahiti and Papua New Guinea.
Australia went
back home with 18 medals (9 golds, 4 silvers and 5 bronzes);
Samoa hauled in 12 (1 gold, 3 silvers and 8 bronzes); New Zealand
went back with five medals (1 silver and four bronzes); Papua
New Guinea finished with 3 medals (1 gold and 2 silvers); Tonga
ended up with two (1 silver and 1 bronze); American Samoa came
back with two (2 bronzes) while Fiji and Nauru went back home
with one medal each (both bronzes).
Below are the
results by the local boxers and the information was gathered
from the AIBA website www.aiba.org:
Tupa'i fought
in two bouts in the Super Heavyweight division, beating Samoa's
Aveo Niko Vaega by points 20-16 and then losing by a point to
Australia's Rudic in the quarterfinals 14-13.
Mamoe out-pointed
New Zealand's Zigzag Wallace in his first bout 33-28 of the light
heavyweight class and then lost in the semi-finals to eventual
gold medallist from Samoa, Satupaitea Farani Tavui, by RSCOS
(Referee Stop Contest Outscored).
Tavui of Samoa
went on to beat fellow compatriot Taga Vaitale Soifale in the
final by three points, 15-12.
Pritchard lost
his first bout to Soifale by RSCOS in the same weight class of
that of Mamoe.
Mamoe and Reece
Papuni of New Zealand were the bronze medallists in this class.
Vaele, the other
local bronze medallist, won his first bout of the middleweight
division by beating Samoa's Safai To'o Mitai 37-18 in points
and then lost by a 17-4 decision to silver medallist of the division,
Nathan Ewan of New Zealand.
Vaele and Trent
Broadhurst of Australia were the bronze medal winners of the
weight class.
The last two
local boxers competing in the welter weight class, Imo Aieti
lost in his first bout to Samoa's Iva Afakasi Faumui by points
(32-6) while Togafau Aieti lost by RSCOS to another Samoan, Afega
Hugo Fata.
Jamias attributes
their improved performance to the ring in place at the VA Clubhouse
in Tafuna that they have been using on a constant basis to train
their boxers.
"I want
to thank all those people that donated a little cash at Cost-U-Less
and I also want to thank Cost-U-Less and the veterans for their
support," Jamias said. "Our thanks go to whoever donated
to amateur boxing."
He would go on
to say that there was a request from Samoa to bring boxers over
for another tournament, but they begged off by asking them to
give them a "little breathing room" before they can
set it up because of the costs involved in hosting their contingent.
In the meantime
they will hold some local tournaments and also keep their under-18
boxers training for the 2010 Under-18 World Championships.
"We need
to take our fighters to places to compete but of course these
kinds of things are money driven because of the costs of the
airfares," Jamias said, but he is very optimistic with the
future of boxing in the territory especially after their recent
performance.
Reach the
reporter at sports@samoanews.com.
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