New Zealand boxing's Olympic hopefuls could be thrown a financial life line

The team of nine, which includes two-time Commonwealth Games champion David Nyika, were unexpectedly forced to return home after the cancellation of the Olympic qualifying tournament in China, due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The tournament has since been rescheduled to be hosted in March in Jordan.

The rescheduling, however, leaves a costly load on the self-funded athletes.

Manager Mark Keddell says they've applied for some of the costs to be covered by High Performance Sport NZ, with Boxing NZ prepared to fill in the gaps.