Boxing falls on hard times

Calistus Kolantsho | Monday July 24, 2023 16:00

TOUGH TIMES: Botswana boxers will miss out on the Africa Boxing Men and Women Championships (AFBC) because of the current financial crisis faced by the association PIC: PHATSIMO KAPENG

The move will see local boxers miss out on the richest boxing tournament in the continent with a total of $100,000 (approximately P1.3 million) prize money at stake.

The tournament will be staged in Yaounde, Cameroon from July 25 until August 6. Gold medalists bank $20,000 (approximately P262, 000), silver medallists take home $10,000 (approximately P131, 000) and $5,000 (approximately P65, 000) for each of the two bronze medallists.

Currently, Botswana and Malawi are the only countries that have withdrawn from the tournament, with 33 countries remaining to battle for the honours. BoBA president, Gilbert Khunwane told Sport Monitor that they took a decision to withdraw from the tournament and focus on Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualifications.

He said the costs for preparing and travelling to Cameroon was going to swallow the entire grant. BoBA has received P290,000 for the current financial year. “The decision to withdraw from the competition was not an easy one because it affects our boxes hard. The tournament has lots of money and boxers were looking forward to it. Another important thing is that the championships were a good opportunity to prepare for Olympics qualifications,” he said. Meanwhile, national team coach, Thebe Setlalekgosi told Sport Monitor that he is disappointed by the decision because the majority of the boxers are unemployed and they rely on tournaments to earn a living.

“Last year, our boxers made a lot of money from this tournament. The prize money has doubled this year, so you can imagine how our boxers are feeling right now.

This will also affect their Olympics preparations big time. As it is right now, we will need a miracle to qualify for the Olympics. We have a month before the qualifiers and we are not even sure we will go, let alone have a local training camp. It is very painful, we worked so hard last year to establish a competitive team but everything is falling apart,” said the disappointed Setlalekgosi. Still on the matter, Setlalekgosi said mindset change should start with everyone and people cannot rely on government funding forever.

He said at some point that will go away, not just in boxing alone, the whole nation should get ready. Former national team coach, Lechedzani Master Luza said missing out on the AFBC championships will affect local boxers. He said the same boxers if not more who will compete at the championships are the ones who will be at the Olympic qualifiers. “So we have missed all the exposure to compete against the best in the continent. Perhaps they (BoBA) have other plans that I am not aware of. It is really unfortunate,” he said.