Tony Mitu Jr. has made history for the sport of Wushu in Papua New Guinea. Today, he arrived in Port Moresby with a bronze medal around his neck.
Tony won the medal in the men’s 70kg sanda competition yesterday in Brisbane, Australia. The match was held during the Oceania International Invitational Wushu Championships, which was held from 21st to 25th May.
The Kung Fu Wushu Association of Papua New Guinea (KFWA PNG) is extremely proud of this achievement and congratulates Tony on his success.
“This was his first international event, and also his first Sanda competition, and he came away with a medal so we are really proud of him,” President of KFWA PNG, Geoff Hui said.
Tony’s coach, Andrew Molen was a very happy man too when he turned up at Jackson’s International Airport to welcome the fighter home.
“Tony worked hard for over a year in training. We did not expect anything, we just wanted him to have the exposure and experience and use that to promote and build the sport in PNG, but now we have a medal so it’s a big motivation for us, and I am very pleased,” Molen said.
The team did not have any sponsors or funding and relied only on their personal resources to prepare to attend the Championships. Molen said they also had support in kind from friends, colleague’s and family members that contributed to this significant outcome.
He also acknowledged the Oceania Kung Fu Wushu Federation and Kung Fu Wushu Australia for the opportunity to participate, and also High-Performance Sport PNG for the specialist support for Tony.
KFWA PNG is looking forward to recruiting and developing more athletes to represent PNG in the future and is appealing to the corporate sector and the government to partner with them on their programmes.
The Association also thanks everyone who followed The Tony’s journey to the Championships.