“She started when she was nine years old and has improved the whole way along. Now, she’s the New Zealand champ.”
Parkes’ long-time rival, Wairarapa’s Brooke Miller, has moved up to the junior category.
The rivalry could resume next year, however, with Parkes also set to move up divisions when she turns 15.
Tofa said Parkes turned up every day for training and pushed herself to the limit.
“It’s probably past the limit.
“That commitment and discipline is a big part of it. No matter what, she’s there training hard.
“Now she can see that all the hard work is worthwhile.”
Palmer, a silver medallist at the recent Oceania Championships in Samoa, repeated the feat in Tauranga.
He went down via a split decision in the youth middleweight final after winning his previous two fights.
“Chili just didn’t quite do enough and he knew it,” Tofa said.
“He beat the same guy a couple of months ago, but it is what it is. A silver medal is still good and he’ll be back.”
Oldehaver, a super-heavyweight, went down to a “man mountain” who outweighed him by close to 30kg, Tofa said.
“I think he should drop down to heavyweight because he’ll look really good there.
“I’d rather him be right near the top of the heavyweights at 92kg than at the bottom of the super-heavyweights. Those Auckland boys are humungous.
“He’s still number three in the country though. There’s not much more you can do.”
Boxing could be a very lonely and demanding sport, Tofa said.
“Losses will always come but you’ve got to stick at it. We’ll keep working hard.
“Like anything, the more you do it, the better you’ll get. You need that mentality - ‘This is my sport and this is what I want to do’.”
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
