Africa’s total number of 73 boxers from 25 countries won two quotas as the 2nd World Olympic Qualification tournament ended in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday, June 2.
In a battle of southpaws, Mali’s featherweight Marine Fatoumata Camara (pictured right in action in Bangkok) lost 5-0 to India’s Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Jasmine Lamboriya. The Indian boxer effectively used her longer reach to contain Camara who fought remarkably well in the Bangkok tournament.
It’s two wins and three losses on the last day for Africa in Bangkok.
With the qualification of DR Congo’s welterweight Brigitte Mbabi and Cape Verde’s flyweight David Pina, Africa now has a total of 20 qualifiers for the Paris Olympics.
There’s the nine universality places – five for women and four for men – to be confirmed this month by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). You never know, Africa could land more qualifiers here but it’s not guaranteed.
After a shaky start, the African boxers rallied strongly towards the end to have six boxers in the crucial quarter finals. Overall, the performance is a notable improvement compared to the 1st World Olympic Qualifiers in Italy where all the 68 African boxers failed to qualify.
However, the African teams would have done much better if their boxers are technically and mentally equipped to excel in such major events.
One area that needs urgent improvement, as Namibia’s featherweight boxer Tryagain Ndevelo pointed out, is the art of scoring points. African boxers need to be constantly reminded by their coaches when in the ring, the main agenda is on how to outscore your opponent and not just throwing random punches for the sake of it. They should always know they’re engaged in a battle of wits. And this means all the faculties of the mind have to be engaged putting into account ring generalship.
The onus now falls on each national federation to work out their own strategies to improve on their teams, and avoid passing the buck. Accept where there’s a weakness and make amends. This calls for concerted efforts in their own respective countries and how they will convince their governments to support boxing bearing in mind the budget of most African governments is over-stretched on priorities such as education, health, agriculture and infrastructure.
Against this background, the national federations will have to be more aggressive to source for their own funding to constantly expose their boxers, improve on coaching and facilities. What they should avoid is to use their respective governments or any other organisation as scapegoats for their own failures.
We all know the sacrifices the national federations go through and we do appreciate their commitment their volunteer roles since none of them is paid any salary. We laud those national leaders who dig deep into their own pockets to cater for various needs of their federations.
Positively, the Africa Boxing Confederation (AFBC) has engaged some major sponsors who are ready to support the African body improve the standards of boxing through the introduction of more tournaments in the continent including the first ever Junior Africa Championships. Training of coaches and RJs is an important area which AFBC is working on earnestly.
Credit: AFBC Communications
