Katoa keen on Olympic dream
The National, Thursday March 3rd, 2016
By FRANCIS RODNEY PULU
YOUNG PNG boxer Thaddeus Katoa wants to apply his winning mentality to his preparations to qualify for the Rio Olympics.
Since making his debut onto the national scene, the 19-year-old from Catarets Island in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville had been winning all his fights from 2012 to 2015.
His last fight was last year during the Olympic Youth Games in Samoa, where he won the country’s first gold medal at that level against a fighter from Northern Ireland.
Katoa was first introduced to the sport by his uncle Thomas Voha in 2012 while he was Grade seven and he has never looked back after making his mark in this sport.
In 2012 during the PNG Games in Kokopo, East New Britain, he won gold in the 52kg, surprising boxing officials.
His first fight as a national fighter was during two friendly matches between PNG and Queensland in Port Moresby in 2014, where he won gold against his Queensland opponent.
After these impressive fights, he was monitored by the PNG Boxing Union for further representative roles.
His chance to cement his position in the national side finally came in 2014 during the Boxing National Championships in Goroka, Eastern Highlands, where he won all his bouts to make the finals and win gold.
From this performance, he was selected into the PNG squad for the 2015 Pacific Games.
He won his first Pacific Games gold medal through a technical knockout against his Samoan opponent.
After the Pacific Games, Katoa made history when he won the country’s first Gold medal at the Olympic Youth Games in Samoa.
He said the highlight of his career was after wining the Pacific and the Olympic Youth games.
“Currently I am the Pacific and the Olympic youth champion in my category.If I qualify to attend the Olympics, I am going there with the aim of winning against the best on the world stage,” he said.
He said his aim was to make the finals and winning a medal was one of his dreams.
Katoa and his three male colleagues leave this Sunday for China to qualify for the Olympics.