Garth da Silva was the lone New Zealand boxer to attend the 1996 Olympics held in Atlanta, USA. Accompanied by Manager Coach Chris Kenny, da Silva made a spectacular start to his Olympic campaign, when he knocked out the Irishman, Cathal O’Grady, the reigning European Junior champion in the second round.

Such was the power of the kiwi boxers punches, damage was done to da Silva’s hand, which he carried into the next round. Pain killing injections were used, to allow him to box Serguei Dychkov from Belarus. After a valiant battle, Garth lost his second round contest on a narrow points decision.

Super Heavyweight Angus Shelford, lost to Olexey Mazyikin from Ukraine by a 19-5 points decision at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with the late great Dr John McKay in his corner. Soulan Pownceby, was stopped in round three in his first contest four years later in Athens.

Women’s boxing made its Olympic debut at the 2012 London Olympics, where New Zealand was represented by Flyweight Siona Femandes and Lightweight Alexis Pritchard.

The Auckland based Lightweight became just the sixth Kiwi to progress to the second round of competition, after she defeated Jouini from Bulgaria 15-10 in preliminary action, before bowing out to Ochigava from Russia 4-22 in the quarterfinals.

David Nyika entered the postponed (because of Covid) 2020 Olympic Games held in Tokyo Japan, during July and August 2021, as a double Commonwealth Games champion. The Waikato boxer, had won Gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the Light Heavyweight division, before claiming the Heavyweight title at the 2018 Games held on the Gold Coast of Australia.

Nyika kicked of his Olympic dream, when he outclassed Moroccan Youness Baalla in winning a unanimous decision in his first bout.

David assured himself of an Olympic medal with a convincing victory over Uladzislau Smiallikau of Belarus in their heavyweight quarter-final. Under boxing rules, the losing semi-finalists do not box again and are both awarded a bronze medal.

Nyika, was extremely slick against the Belarusian, hitting him repeatedly with his left jab and opening up a cut over his left eye in the first round. As the fight wore on the New Zealander also employed some telling upper cuts.

His ability to switch repeatedly from orthodox stance to southpaw added to Smiallikau’s woes, and not surprisingly the Hamilton man was awarded a unanimous decision, though to the surprise of most, one judge awarded the third round to the Belarusian.

The New Zealand representative lost a bruising, physical heavyweight boxing semi-final to Russian Muslim Gadzhimagomedov, which saw him awarded an Olympic bronze medal.

Nyika was always going to have his work cut out. He lost to the tall Russian in 2019, and knew going into the fight that Gadzhimagomedov had not lost a fight in four years. Even so, the man from Hamilton was far from overawed. He landed some snappy jabs and attempted to introduce some powerful right hand crosses, but found it difficult penetrating the Russian’s defences.

Nyika, 25, did everything he could, switching from an orthodox stance to southpaw repeatedly and even tried leading with his right, but the Russian is a tough boxer and landed plenty of shots of his own.

1996 – ALANTA, USA

Coach:                     Chris Kenny (Wellington)

(It should be noted that Chris Kenny was asked to corner Paea Wolfgram who lived in New Zealand but represented Tonga.  Paea progressed to win a Silver Medal in the Super Heavyweight division).

Heavyweight:        Garth da Silva (Auckland)

                                    Defeated Cathal O’Grady (Ireland) KO R1

                                    Lost to Sergey Dychkov (Belarus) 12-8                                         

2000 – SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Coach:                     Dr John McKay (Auckland)

Super Heavyweight:  Angus Shelford (Auckland)

                                    Lost to Olexey Mazyikin (Ukraine) 19-5                      

2004 – ATHENS, GREECE

Coach:                    Phil Shatford (Christchurch)

Light Heavyweight:   Soulan Pownceby

Lost to Tarhan Yildirim (Turkey) RSC R3

2008 – BEIJING, CHINA     No New Zealand boxers qualified

2012 – LONDON, ENGLAND        

Coach:                      Cameron Todd

Women’s Flyweight:  Siona Femandes

                                    Lost to Stoyka Petrova (Bulgaria) 11-23

Women’s Lightweight: Alexis Pritchard (Auckland)

                                    Defeated Rim Jouini (Bulgaria) 22-4

Quarterfinals           Lost to Ochigava (Russia) 10-15

2016 – RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL           No New Zealand boxers qualified

2020 – TOKYO, JAPAN (July 2021)           

Coach:                      Billy Meehan (Palmerston North)

Heavyweight:         David Nyika (Auckland)                                               BRONZE Medal

                                      Defeated Youness Baalla (Morocco) 5-0

                                      Defeated Uladzislau Smiahlikau (Belarus) 5-0

Semi-finals                 Lost to Muslim Gadzhimagomedov (ROC) 4-1

2024 – Paris, France              No New Zealand boxers qualified

Article added: Thursday 08 August 2024