Tarona Taafaki secures Tuvalu’s first Commonwealth Games medal without winning a bout
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Flag bearers Tarona Taafaki (right) and Pasoni Taafaki lead athletes of Tuvalu during the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.
PHOTO: REUTERS
GLASGOW – Boxer Tarona Taafaki made history for Tuvalu when she won the Pacific island nation’s first-ever Commonwealth Games medal in Glasgow, without winning a single bout.
Taafaki, one of five entrants in the women’s 75kg category, received a bye to the semi-finals where she lost to India’s Lovlina Borgohain on July 31.
The Commonwealth Games does not hold bronze-medal bouts and all boxers eliminated in the semis receive bronze medals.
“I’m very proud and very glad to be able to represent my country on this big stage,” said 20-year-old Taafaki, one of only eight athletes and para athletes from the country at the Commonwealth Games.
Tuvalu has a population of just over 10,000 people.
“Probably 95 per cent of the audience don’t know where my country is, so I feel very privileged to represent Tuvalu,” Taafaki added. REUTERS