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CCNTV6
  • 1 year ago
As some of Trinidad and Tobago's athletes are on their way to the Paris Olympics, others are ruing the missed opportunity. National Boxer Nigel Paul who did not qualify for 2024 Olympics says this may have been his last shot at competing at another Olympics. He indicated that his age and other opportunities may likely turn him away from going another four years in the sport.
Transcript
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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