Page 41 - IB June July 2024

Sports Sports

Mia Aquino wrestles hard at the Olympic qualifiers. Photo: Supplied Tayla Ford completing her fireman’s carry.
Photo: Supplied

style, and it is the club that I am a part of. she told Islands Business.
“It’s a problem when it comes to furthering Olympic Tongan wrestling coach, Amir Bahrami says after a slow
wrestling in Guam. A majority of Guam high school coaches do start in the Tongan community, wrestling is starting to gain
not encourage their kids to wrestle beyond and to pursue the momentum.
Olympics or international competition.” “The more we put it out into the community, the more
Funding is their other major challenge. interest we are seeing,” says Bahrami.
“We fundraise as much as we can. Sometimes, when funding Tiger Lily Cocker Lemalie, who was 18 at the time,
is available [through] the Guam National Olympic Committee, represented Tonga in the 2022 Birmingham Games in the
our trips could be funded, which lifts a heavy burden. A big 68kg category. She won 1 out of 3 matches in her preliminary
help for us comes from our coach Nano (also our uncle), as rounds.
he finances the gym we train out of. Because we cannot go to
tournaments every month, our club trains in Japan over the Tayla Ford
summer, since Japan is very close to Guam (it is cheaper for Oceania and New Zealand wrestling champion, Tayla Ford,
us to go to Japan versus Europe or America). That way, we can the first New Zealand woman to wrestle at the Olympics,
experience wrestling different, high-level bodies. When we shares this optimism.
are training here at home, we have to train a lot harder just to “I believe we can do it. We are extremely athletic when it
make up for the lack of bodies,” says Rckaela. comes to sport and especially if we put our minds to it, we
“Because of the lack of funding, we do not have as many can excel at the highest level. We may lack experience and
chances to compete in numerous tournaments, the way our exposure to higher levels, but once we have the opportunity
competitors from more developed countries like Japan or the to bridge that gap, I think we could do extremely well.
United States, do. Our coaches investing their own personal Ford lives and trains in Adelaide, Australia, where she tries
money and time, as well as occasional support from our her best to spread the word on wrestling.
National Olympic Committee, are what made that possible. “We don’t get many islanders in wrestling where I am, but
Once there is a stable form of support, interest can be back home (Christchurch, New Zealand), there are and they
fostered and supplemented.” are usually quite good at it. They pick it up quickly…maybe
because of the contact side of the sport being so familiar to
Oceania rugby. They are strong, explosive and always keep going.”
According to the Vice President of the Oceania Wrestling She is aware that wrestling lacks financial support, “but
Council (OWC), Marlene Pouri-Lane, the Council is working to there’s so much history to be made and I think with the
promote wrestling within Oceania. results we just got from qualifying five athletes from Oceania
The sport is played in Australia, New Zealand, Palau, proves that we are on our way up.”
Micronesia, Tonga, Samoa, American Samoa, Tahiti, Marshall Ford is ranked 10th in the world and will compete in the
Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and Guam. 68kg women’s category in her Olympic debut.
Pouri-Lane says the OWC is working on trying to get more “My current goal is to place in the top eight. And if all our
involvement from the rest of the countries within Oceania. plans go well on track accordingly, hopefully we could win a
“Pacific people have the tenacity and confidence to be medal.”
strong in wrestling. They have speed and agility, and have
a good knowledge of how the body can move. We strongly Reported by Alipate Pareti
encourage Pacific Islanders to participate in wrestling. We
also encourage rugby teams to get involved in wrestling as the
takedowns in wrestling are very good in tackling techniques,”

Islands Business,June/Juy 2024 41