A boxer from the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu has won her country’s first Commonwealth Games medal without winning a fight.
Tarona Taafaki was given a bye to the last four of the women’s 75kg division after only five fighters entered the competition. She lost to India’s Lovlina Borgohain in the semi-final in Glasgow on Friday, losing every round on all three of the judges’ cards but under Commonwealth Games rules, every semi-finalist boxer receives a bronze medal, and thus Taafaki, 20, making history.
Speaking after the medal was confirmed, she said she was “honoured to represent my small nation” and hopes her success will inspire other Tuvaluans. She said people have always asked her where she’s from, to which she replies: “I say I’m Tuvaluan and they don’t even know where it is – if it’s a Pacific country or an African country”.
Taafaki is one of eight siblings who are all into boxing, including her brother Pasoni, who also competed in Glasgow, losing his opening bout at 70kg earlier this week.
He said the medal “means everything” to the tiny island nation – which at 10 square miles is the fourth-smallest country in the world.
“We’re one of the smallest nations in the world, so a medal like this is hugely significant. We have worked so hard to get here. For me as a coach, it’s a stepping stone.”
The Taafaki children are currently based in New Zealand, to take advantage of better facilities.
Athletes on the island famously train on the airport runway, the most stable land mass on an island increasingly threatened by rising sea levels.
Climate experts predict half of the nation’s capital, Funafuti, could be submerged by 2050.
The coastal erosion in the Island is unbelievable, and the countdown is now measured in years, not decades. Some islands have lost half their land,” he said.
Taafaki is not the first boxer to win a Commonwealth Games medal without winning a fight.
Australia’s Taylah Robertson picked up a bronze in the women’s flyweight category on the Gold Coast in 2018 despite losing her first bout to England’s Lisa Whiteside.