As the world's elite athletes chase Olympic triumph in Rio, Ezatullah Kakar watches on from his island jail and hopes his own sporting dreams are not sunk.
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The budding Pakistani kick-boxer could easily have fallen into a depressed torpor after three years in immigration detention at Manus Island.
But instead, the 24-year-old hits the gym each morning and hones his kickboxing craft for three hours most afternoons, insisting: "I want to be a world champion".
He is being mentored over the internet by Queensland-based former Australian lightweight boxing title-holder Miles Zalewski.
"I am still fit. Many people [in detention] lose hope and can't do anything, but I am still doing exercise," he told Fairfax Media from the Australian-funded detention centre.
"I just need freedom, anywhere. I believe in myself, I want my career to come back."
Wednesday's announcement by PNG that Australia had agreed to close the Manus Island facility raised hopes that 850 men held there will soon find freedom. But no timetable for the closure has been set, and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says the men will not come to Australia and no third country resettlement option has been found.
Mr Kakar said he took up kickboxing in 2005 and five years later joined the Pakistan national team and began competing internationally.
The presence of a refugee team at the Olympics has given hope to many who have fled their home countries. But Mr Kakar, who has been following the Olympics via his mobile phone, finds the games hard to watch.
"When I watch Olympics news I feel very worried about why I am still in a prison," he said.
"[I think] why am I still here? Who cares about us? It's like we are animals. Just give me one chance. I will show myself in the ring."
Mr Zalewski has been in contact with Mr Kakar for four months, and uses Facebook Messenger and a patchy Manus Island internet connection to provide Mr Kakar with training tips, mental support and friendship.
"He's got the discipline, the determination and the drive – he's probably more hungry than all of us combined," Mr Zalewski said.
"I can see potential is there, but a lot of work needs to be [done]."
Mr Kakar is not the only sportsman being held at Manus Island. Esmaiel Saiedi is a keen marathon runner, wrestler and Jiu-jitsu athlete who, according to fellow detainee and Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani, recently ran about 500 kilometres over three weeks – all inside a detention centre compound.
Throughout the quiet show of resistance, Mr Saiedi, an asylum seeker from Iran, reportedly wore a singlet bearing the words: "I am still alive, running for justice."
"He wanted to say to people that that 'we are human and we are victims of violence and injustice … we are not criminals'," Mr Boochani recently wrote on Facebook.
"When I think about a determined young man like Esmaiel I feel stronger … this young man can be like a symbol of resistance in Manus prison because of his peaceful protest."
Peter Young, a respected psychiatrist who oversaw the mental health of asylum seekers in all Australian-run detention centres from 2011 to mid-2014, said the system was "designed to drain people of all hope".
"The system just grinds them down relentlessly, so to still be [in training] after this length of time in detention, someone has to have extraordinary internal resources," he said.
"One of the things you experience working in the system is the degree of mental toughness that so many of these people have."