SAMOA 2019: Australia’s Mackenzie Singleton has been named as Junior Male Athlete of the Pacific Games recently completed in Samoa.

The award provided a fitting finish for the Australian Team at the Games, which saw our 55 athletes from six sports bring home 56 medals.

The 18-year-old won the gold medal in the men’s -54kg taekwondo in a thrilling match that went down to the wire.

In his international debut, Mackenzie came up against Papua New Guinea’s Bobby Willie in the final and was down 10 points with 30 seconds left of the fight.

After landing big head kicks and body kicks, the scores were levelled with four seconds remaining.

“I got to an even point and I decided the best way to get one point and get ahead in the final seconds was a big punch, and I landed it. I looked at the score board and the number flicked over and my heart just skipped a beat, I realised I had 0.5 seconds left and I had got it, I had won,” Mackenzie said.

Nominations were received on the last day of the Pacific Games from the Chefs de Mission of the 24 competing nations for a selection of special awards.

While there were many outstanding Australian performances worthy of nomination, Australian Chef de Mission and three-time Olympian Ken Wallace said Singleton was nominated not only for his incredible come-from-behind gold medal victory, but for the way he conducted himself off the mats.

“Mackenzie was a stand-out athlete in Samoa that epitomised the Australian Team spirit,” Wallace said.

“Not only did he refuse to give up in his final fight and came back from ten points down to win the gold medal in his first ever international tournament, but he was incredibly humble and gracious in victory.

“It was evident from the way he conducted himself how grateful he was to have the experience to represent Australia at the Pacific Games, and how much the opportunity to compete in the green and gold meant to him and his family, who were there to watch him."

Singleton said he was “speechless” when Wallace called him to share the good news.

“At first I didn’t believe him because I didn’t think I’d done anything very special, I just thought I was your average competitor at the Games,” the Melbournian said.

“Being labelled the Best Junior Male Athlete is something that means more than a medal to me, the feeling is indescribable. It’s an absolute honour and it’s capped off the entire Games experience perfectly in a way I didn’t see coming.

“To me, competing at the Games meant achieving a dream and being a part of something that was bigger than myself. I’ve had the dream of representing Australia for most of my life, and being able to achieve that, and to be surrounded by athletes from around the world who share the same dream as me, it really was something so special that doesn’t come along very often.

“Success and victory are not worth that much if you sacrifice yourself to get them, and the thing that I’m really happy about in receiving this award is that it’s a validation that I’m not giving myself up for success and I’m staying true to who I am.”

After 11 days of competition in Apia, Samoa, Australia finished sixth on the Medal Tally with 33 gold, nine silver and 14 bronze medals.

Samoa 2019 was the second time Australia has participated in the Pacific Games after being invited to compete in the sports of athletics, beach volleyball, rugby 7s, sailing, taekwondo and weightlifting.

The 15-strong taekwondo team, which included triple Olympian Carmen Marton and dual Olympian Safwan Khalil, made history when they won every single weight division entered in Samoa, coming home with 15 gold medals.

Check out all the Australian results from Samoa 2019 HERE.

Georgia Thompson
olympics.com.au