Boxer gets Commonwealth Games medal without winning a fight
Boxer gets Commonwealth Games medal without winning a fight
Telegraph SportSat, August 1, 2026 at 9:02 AM UTC
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Tarona Taafaki (right), pictured with her brother Pasoni at the opening ceremony in Glasgow last month, lost her only match at the Commonwealth Games to India’s Lovlina Borgohain - Phil Noble/Reuters
A boxer from Tuvalu earned her tiny South Pacific nation’s first Commonwealth Games medal without winning a fight.
On Friday, Tarona Taafaki was defeated in her only bout in the women’s 75kg class to India’s Lovlina Borgohain, losing every round on all three of the judges’ cards.
Because there were five entrants, Taafaki received a bye to the last four, meaning she was guaranteed at least a bronze medal.
But her coach and father said the population of Tuvalu – an island southeast of Tonga – will celebrate the medal and use it to highlight a climate change emergency.
Badi Taafaki, whose son Pasoni competed earlier in the Games and lost his only bout at 70kg, told the Press Association: “For the people of Tuvalu, this medal means everything.
“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.”
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Tarona and Pasoni are the two oldest of eight children, all of whom are boxers. They are based in New Zealand to take advantage of better facilities.
“My children are very fortunate,” Badi Taafaki said. “They have opportunities and facilities that I never had. Boxing is our whole life. Strength is in our bloodline.”
Athletes on the island train on its 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.
“Yes, we train on the airport runway,” Badi Taafaki said. “When a plane comes in, everyone moves aside. As soon as it leaves, we go back on the tarmac, because there is nowhere else to train.
“If we can win medals, more people around the world will recognise Tuvalu and begin to understand the challenges we face because of climate change.
“It is very real for us. The coastal erosion is unbelievable, and the countdown is now measured in years, not decades. Some islands have lost half their land. At high tide the sea comes right through. People living on the coast can’t sleep if there’s a storm, because the waves can come straight through their homes.”
Tarona 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 bout to England’s Lisa Whiteside.
Source: “AOL Sports”
