Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

One of the few bright spots for Sideline Sid in recent weeks has been the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics for twelve months.

The news gives certainty to the Kiwi sports men and women, who have already booked berths, in what will become the 2021 Olympic Games.

While New Zealand heavyweight boxer David Nyika will have to cool his heels in the current lockdown, David and his team will now be able to plan a pathway to next years Olympics with some certainty.

The Olympic Dream is never easy for our countries boxers, who live at the end of the world.

Overseas international competition costs money, and with boxing a minority sport in our country, the boxers are mainly required to self-fund their trips, with fundraising often interfering with their focus on preparation.

While Ted Morgan (Gold), Kevin Barry Jnr (Silver) and David Tua (Bronze) have tasted Olympic success, just three further Kiwi boxers have won an Olympic bout, from our 29 Olympic participants.

Sideline Sid believes that David Nyika is the 'Real Deal' and is a realistic Tokyo Olympic medalist.

Nyika became the first Boxing New Zealand pugilist to win two Commonwealth Games Gold medallions, with success at the 2014 Glasgow and 2018 Gold Coast Games.

To put his Commonwealth Games achievements into context, his double gold took the Boxing New Zealand gold medal tally from six to eight.

High Performance Sport New Zealand funding has assisted David to compete in international tournaments on a regular basis, which saw him rise to fifth in the World amateur heavyweight rankings.

Last year, Boxing New Zealand embarked on a comprehensive international build-up in order to give our boxers the best possible opportunity to qualify to box at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The Australasian Super Eight series in Auckland, Sydney and Adelaide were just the entree to international tournaments in Poland, Spain, Taiwan and the Men's World Championships in Russia.

David showcased his skills and talent at the Feliks Stamm tournament in Poland, winning the Heavyweight gold medal, along with earning the boxer of the tournament award.

In addition the Super Eight Trans-Tasman crown, a bronze medal in Spain and World Championships top sixteen finish, rounded out his 2019 season credentials.

In spite of the Asia/Oceania qualification tournament in Wuhan, China, being hastily rescheduled for Amman in Jordan, the New Zealand team performed with distinction.

The New Zealand heavyweight qualified for Tokyo, with super heavyweight Uila Mau'u a solitary win away from his Olympic dream.

Nyika earned a bye in first round, courtesy of earning the number two seed position, before easily defeating a Syrian opponent in the quarterfinals.

An impressive semi-final victory over the number three seed, from Uzbekistan, set up a tournament gold medal showdown with Vasiliy Levit from Kazakhstan.

With no quarter shown or given, our man in black took the 2016 Olympic silver medalist to the wire before bowing to defeat.

While David Nyika will climb into the Tokyo ring next year, there is still a (very) slim chance that he could be joined by another one or two New Zealanders.

The Olympic boxing qualification process has scheduled a last-chance tournament in Paris at the conclusion of the Continental qualifiers, with Boxing New Zealand now having to decide whether to throw the dice one last time.