After a hiatus of 20 years, Team Fiji has finally won a gold medal for boxing at the Pacific Games. The win came from Fiji boxing skipper Jone Davule who defeated Solomon Island’s Maximilan Makana in the men’s 60 kilograms final at Friendship Hall on Friday night.
Head coach Cam Todd’s side to the Pacific Games side included seven members, including the renowned Davule who was the first Fijian boxer to win a World Boxing Championship bout earlier this year.
Davule silenced the home crowd of Makana who he defeated in the second and third rounds of the bout. After winning his gold medal, Davule dedicated his win to his late aunt who raised him since he was a child.
“My win today is a very emotional one because I did it for my aunt who passed away a few months ago,” he said.
“She passed away around two months ago, and going back into the ring was very hard for me. Luckily, I had my coach Cam Todd who has been by my side from the very beginning.”
Davule said returning to the ring after the death of a loved one was one of his toughest challenges leading up to the Pacific Games.
“She’s been my biggest supporter since I started boxing. For every tournament I would go to she would always message me and ask how I was doing.”
Davule said after his first bout at the Pacific Games, he would always check his Facebook account looking for his aunt’s usual messages of encouragement. Unfortunately, there was none this time around.
“I always find myself going back to my Facebook account looking to see if my aunt had messaged me. It hurts when I realise that I will never see a message from her again.” Fiji Boxing head coach Cam Todd said there was no other member of his squad more deserving of the medal than Davule.
“He’s been through a lot, but he has managed to come out victorious. We lost his aunt a few months ago which was a very dark time for him,” Todd said.
“He almost didn’t return to the ring, but I had to remind him that his aunt would have wanted him to compete at the games.”
Meanwhile, the games came to an end last night with Team Fiji finishing sixth on the medal tally. Team Fiji finished with 21 gold, 30 silver and 40 bronze medals for total haul of 90.
New Caledonia, which led from day one of competition, finished first with 82 gold, 57 silver and 58 bronze medals for a total medal count of 197.
Tahiti finished second with 57 gold, 53 silver and 50 bronze medals for total haul of 160.
Australia finished third with 50 gold, 24 silver and 10 bronze medals for a total of 84.
Samoa surprisingly finished in fourth place with a total of 76 medals – 34 gold, 21 silver and 21 bronze. Papua New Guinea overtook Fiji on the second last day with 29 gold, 37 silver and 39 bronze medals.
