Raymond Ovinou

Competing in the men’s judo -66kg division, Bouchard, who is ranked 16^th in the world, was declared the winner by Ippon with Uchi-mata.

Ippon is the highest score a fighter can achieve while Uchi-mata in judo is an inner thigh throw.

Ovinou was apologetic in defeat, feeling he had let the nation down.

The Canadian Bouchard went on to fight for the bronze medal in the -66kg division.

Ovinou is PNG’s first judo athlete to compete at an Olympics.

In the Team PNG rooms, motivational messages from students of various schools in PNG have been placed on the walls, providing a welcome reminder to the athletes of the great support from home.

The first two Team PNG athletes to arrive, Raymond Ovinou of judo and Thadius Katua of boxing, have gotten straight into their training sessions at the Games training venues.

Katua had a sparring session with a boxer from Thailand.

His performance against the more experienced boxer was pleasing, according to coaches Allan Nicolson and Joe Aufa.