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

Little did Sideline Sid know that when he called a 16-year-old David Nyika into the ring at the 2011 Boxing New Zealand National Championships, that a decade later, the Auckland boxer would represent his country at the Olympic Games.

One of the real pleasures of two decades of ring announcing, is watching the development of young boxers entering the ring for the first time, into competitors who are confident of their ability in combat.

David Nyika is set to become the 31st Kiwi boxer represent New Zealand at the Olympics, since Charlie Purdy made his entrance at the 1924 Olympic Games held in Paris, France.

New Zealand has won a trifecta of Olympic boxing medals.

Ted Morgan won a gold medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, to win his country's first Olympic Gold Medal.

It would be 56 years before Kevin Barry would return home from the 1984 Los Angles games with a silver medal, followed by David Tua claiming a bronze medallion at the 1992 Olympics.

Just three further kiwi boxers in David Jackson, Garth da Silva and Alexis Pritchard, have won a bout in Olympic competition, which highlights the intense competition at Olympic level.

David Nyika will take on the heavyweight division in Tokyo with a wealth of experience.

A New Zealand light heavyweight title in 2014, was followed by heavyweight crowns in 2016, 2018 and 2020.

His 2018 title was accompanied by the Jameson Belt, which saw him become just the second heavyweight (after Shane Cameron) to win the most scientific award.

Nyika is entitled to be ranked as one of the best amateur boxers to be produced in the country.

A Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2014 saw him become the only Kiwi boxer to earn double Commonwealth Games glory, with further gold on the Gold Coast in Australia in 2018.

David's long road to Tokyo kicked-off in 2019, when Boxing New Zealand undertook an extensive international program to give a group of elite New Zealand boxer's overseas competition, before the Asia/Oceania Olympic qualifying tournament in early 2020.

The Waikato boxer won gold at the Trans-Tasman Super Eight, which was just the entree to the Felix Stamm International tournament in Poland.

Victories over Russian and Indian opponents in preliminary competition, saw him advance to the title decider, where he beat a Polish fighter and also win the boxer of the tournament award.

A bronze medal at Boxam Valencia wound-up Nyika's 2019 international program, as he set his sights on Olympic qualification the following year.

New Zealand Olympic qualification became so much harder after Oceania lost their qualification spot and were thrown in with the Asia region.

First-up in the 2020 Olympic qualification tournament, David dispatched a Syrian boxer before defeating an Uzbekistan opponent, which qualified him for the Olympics.

He then squared off with a Kazakhstan fighter in the tournament final, losing a narrow decision, but gaining plenty of accolades against the 2016 Olympic silver medalist.

David Nyika will be the sole kiwi in the Olympic ring, after the last-chance qualification tournament in Paris in May 2021 was cancelled due to Covid-19, which denied any other New Zealand boxers the chance to join David in Olympic competition.