Ume a true boxing champ

OLYMPICS

By THOMAS HUKAHU
DID you watch any of the events that the seven Papua New Guinean athletes participated in during the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo?
Which was your favourite?
Was it one of the two weightlifters, Dika Toua or Morea Baru?
Was it one of the swimmers, Judith Meauri, or Ryan Maskelyne?
Was it one of the sailors, Teariki Numa or Rose-Lee Numa?
Or, was it the lone boxer John Ume, the one who fought in the lightweight (57-63 kg) division?
The progress of some of the athletes
Before the competitions started, I was kind-of following Baru, knowing that he had done exceptionally well in the 2016 Olympics where he finished 6th overall.
I tracked Toua’s performance in the women’s 49kg category too and noticed that she was placed 10th overall in these Games, even though her best placing was 6th overall in the Athens Games in 2004. She completed her event on July 24.
I then followed Baru’s lifts in the men’s 61kg category on July 25. Having placed 6th five years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I was hoping that he would move a few steps higher in his ranking.
But as it turned out, Baru did not do as well as he did in Rio and was placed 10th overall in the Tokyo Games. In 2016, he lifted a total of 290kg, compared to 265kg that he managed in Tokyo.
I knew that the challenges brought about by the pandemic and their moving to Melbourne to train with their coach Paul Coffa in his new base were factors that were against them, the two weightlifters. Their performances would certainly have been better had those challenges been absent.
All these young athletes representing Papua New Guinea at these very uncertain and trying times should be commended for putting on very brave performances regardless of their ranking.
As we all know, many top athletes from more developed countries who were selected to don their nation’s colours opted out of the tournament at the last minute due to a number of factors, including the uncertainty regarding the pandemic.
Ume reminded me of pugilist Keama
My favourite athlete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is boxer John Ume.
He was an underdog who amazed everyone with his enthusiasm in the ring.
After following Morea’s lifts on July 25 and when it was over, I turned to watch Ume’s fight in the evening and his duel reminded me of watching another PNG boxer during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
In the 2014 Commonwealth Games, I was then the press attaché for Team PNG for the tournament and was sitting near some PNG boxing officials when Keama took on the Northern Ireland fighter and Olympic bronze medallist Paddy Barnes in the men’s 49kg category.
Keama, who was then 20, was the only PNG boxer who won his round-of-16 fight against Botswanan Mooketsi Lekgetho and was heading into the quarterfinal match against Barnes.
Anyone watching the two fighters standing side beside the referee before the fight would have noticed that Keama was skinnier as compared to the stockier, solid-looking Barnes.
After a minute or so into the first round, the 27-year-old Irish boxer was placing good shots on Keama’s body but the man from Mekeo would not let Barnes walk over him, he also took shots at Barnes where and when he could.
In the second and third rounds, the umpire had to stop the fight and ask Keama if he was willing to go on with the match because it was clear that Barnes was using his Olympic experience and pounded the younger PNG man again and again.
Any rational person would have accepted defeat after being hit with hard punches from a top Olympian, but not Keama. The PNG man continued until the end of the three rounds of three minutes each. He had come from the Pacific to the UK to fight to the end, so I imagined that was what he was thinking.
Keama was a good student of the code and used his experience in Glasgow well. During the 2015 Pacific Games he won gold in the men’s 46-49kg category and later became the Oceania champion in 2015 by winning gold in the Oceania Championships in Canberra.
Ume’s fight in the Tokyo Games reminded me of Keama and his Glasgow fight.
Ume’s remarkable fight
Ume’s fight in the Tokyo Olympics was remarkable in a number of ways.
Despite losing to Australian Harry Garside in the round of 32 in the men’s lightweight division, the man from Bereina was a champion.
Unlike the sailors and weightlifters in Team PNG who qualified for the 2020 Olympics, Ume was offered a tripartite invitation place to participate in the Games. That is to say, he was not as well-placed as other boxers who had qualified to get there, including his opponent Garside.
Additionally, the Australian Garside was the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the men’s 60kg category.
The odds were stacked against Ume from the start, including not accessing training venues in Port Moresby to prepare due to the pandemic restrictions imposed by authorities.
Despite those setbacks, Ume went into the first of the three rounds of the match with enthusiasm and matched punches against the taller Garside.
Garside’s technique was in dancing about as a ballet dancer while Ume was much steadier and tried moving in and taking shots at the Australian.
A noteworthy moment was in the second minute of the first round when Ume landed a solid right on Garside in a corner of the ring. The shot caused the Australian to wobble on his feet before he quickly moved backwards and found his balance.
The commentator on 7plus (Channel 7) mentioned that “the Papua New Guinean can really pack a punch”.
About that solid punch which landed on Garside 58 seconds before the first round ended, the commentator added: “We hoped the judges had seen that punch.”
At the end of the first segment of the match though, all five judges awarded Garside the round 10-9.
In the second and third rounds, Ume kept on moving in towards Garside, but the Australian used his experience and greater reach to keep Ume at bay, not allowing the Hohola man any opportunity to take good shots at him.
Garside had also taken cues from his coach during recess to keep peppering Ume with jabs, not really solid but enough to impress the judges.
Consequently, the second and third rounds were also awarded to the Australian and he continued onto the round of 16, which he also won and later would be fighting in the quarterfinals.
What if Ume had prepared better?
Days after watching Ume’s fight, I had asked myself: Could Ume have caused the upset of the boxing tournament in the Games if he had prepared well and was given the best support by the National Boxing Federation and Government back in PNG?
Could he have landed more of that solid right that he landed on Garside in the first round?
I believe the answer is, yes.When I watched Keama fight in the 2014 Glasgow Games, I realised that there is so much potential in boxing.
Our young boxers, both males and females, should be supported to prepare better for the Pacific Games, Oceania Championships, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games, and in that order.
PNG weightlifters have been bringing in medals for PNG in the Commonwealth Games, but boxing has the potential too.
Of course, that is my personal view after observing the efforts of our national athletes over the years.
Commonwealth Games is next year
With hope, we are looking forward to the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom, and hope to see boxers like Ume and Keama supported by their associations to vie for a medal or top finish, and build on from there.
It is our hope that our national federations in the different codes are also working overtime to better prepare our athletes to make a good show in the Commonwealth Games, and with that work towards the next Olympic Games in 2024.
We also hope that Morea, Toua, the Numa siblings, and swimmers Meauri and Maskelyne will also be ready then for another tournament in 2024.
Next article: What I learned from our top athletes

• Thomas Hukahu is an Australia Awards student in Adelaide.

12-year-old saves with MiBank

By JOSEPH KA’AU
ONLY a month ago, Ikai Joseph was just another ordinary 12-year-old Grade 6 student at Hagara Primary school in the nation’s capital.
It was a routine: Going to classes during weekdays, having the weekends off and then back to classes again the following week.
Ikai enjoys going to school. But now, still an ordinary school girl, and apart from her Grade 2 completion certificate, she has a few other items added onto her CV.
A month ago, she came into possession of a barbeque plate and borrowed K100. The barbeque plate was from her sister in-law and the K100 from her elder sister.
Now, after school, completing her homework and helping her parents with chores in her home, she fries and sells sausages to customers in her community
After repaying the money she borrowed from her sister, she began to save the profits she made, in a piggy bank she bought. There seemed to be no other option to secure her savings.
This changed last week when the women in her community got together and formed a group, in their attempt to secure SME funding promised by their newly elected member of parliament, Lohia Boe Samuel.
The women were advised to open personal and group accounts with reputable banks so that funds secured through the SME process would be deposited into these accounts.
But their attempts to open accounts with some of the leading banks in the country was impossible due the cumbersome requirements of these banks. Most of the members of this women’s group are illiterate and did not have an identity which was acceptable to these banks.
Their final attempt was to little known MiBank. To their surprise MiBank officials visited the women a few days later and within hours opened their accounts.
Ikai was the first member of the group to open her account. Five days later she was the first to receive her Hibiscus bank card.
She does not have to worry about the security of her savings now. Her very secure MiBank account has replaced her piggy bank.
Ikai wants to become a teacher when she finishes her education. But now she is being educated to save so that she can supplement her salary, if she ever becomes a teacher.
She wants to use her savings now to help her parents and to meet some of the expences required to complete her education.
“All that the bank required of me was an identification letter from my school and a functioning mobile phone. Within minutes my account was opened.”
She encouraged all mothers and girls who are having difficulties opening accounts with other banks, to try Mibank.
“Their requirements and terms are very helpful to mothers and girls.”