00:00Trinidad and Tobago did not qualify any boxers for the Olympics. Heavyweight
00:05boxer Nigel Paul explains how it felt to not qualify. It's real difficult for me
00:09to deal with because out of all the countries I've been to, Paris is one of
00:13the countries I really wanted to visit and I had my eyes set on going to the
00:17Olympics but you know I'm not in the cards for me so again like the last
00:22Olympics my focus is now shift to World Championship so everything in my
00:25training I was geared towards men's World Championship next year so I really
00:31I really disappointed I really wanted to go to Paris again can I get back to
00:36Olympics but again it's not for me so on to the next.
00:39Is it about visiting France or is it about winning a gold medal in France?
00:44It's a little bit of both for me because as far back as I can remember the only
00:50country I wanted to visit was France like and I always wanted to go there so
00:56kind of having the Olympics there and at the same time for me wanted to medal at
01:00the Olympics for boxing would have been like the ideal thing for me in terms of
01:04my personal life and boxing career but it's not for the Olympic side of it is
01:10not just to go to the Olympics it was really to make history but for Nigel
01:15Paul personally just haven't been to France just yet so I want to go.
01:19So what went wrong?
01:21Personally for me I can't say for the for the national team because in my
01:25opinion the team did well everybody put their best foot forward we just it just
01:29didn't happen for us but for me personally it was injury after injury
01:33trying to get back from one thing and then something else happened so I was
01:37really battling injuries from like 2022 coming up the road doing rehab I opted
01:45out of going to the first qualifiers well the first regional qualifiers I
01:51had to go to the world qualifiers because I was trying to give myself
01:54enough time to get ready and I believe I was ready but then first time being back
01:58in the ring after so long you know ring rust and that kind of vibe it just didn't happen.
02:03Why are you getting injured?
02:05Um life I would say life because the first the first injury I got was
02:12actually accident home backed up on a chair and hit my foot real hard and put
02:18me kind of out of it and then you know compensating different things that
02:21happened my lower back and my knee and one thing led to the next I'm just
02:25trying to deal with rehab so it's not a matter of I'm being injured in
02:29the sport it's just life happened.
02:31How does he intended to approach the world's championships?
02:35Ideally over the period of time put on some weight so I want to get back that
02:39slender lean finish that's the that's the main focus for me right now in terms
02:47of fitness and endurance I believe it's still there but I have a better weight
02:50I'm carrying on right now so trying to get that off and really actually tweak
02:54what we needed to tweak from the last world championships and just have a
02:59better performance and hopefully go high up on the podium.
03:02He's still being coached by Reynald Cox with advice from Floyd Trumpet and he is
03:06considering his options in the sport but does he plan on taking on another
03:10Olympic cycle?
03:11Nah nah definitely not to get to the Olympics we must respect
03:19everybody who qualified presently and in the past because to get to the Olympics
03:23game is nothing easy and me being 35 next Olympics I'll be 39 so I don't see
03:31it happening especially for somebody my size I know fingers crossed all goes
03:36well I'm healthy probably like about two years maximum two years and a half
03:41maximum for me.
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