S. GitahiYouth Championship to kick start busy boxing calendar year
Reading Time: 2min | Wed. 04.01.23. | 21:12
The championship kicks off tomorrow at the Pal Pal Gymnasium in Pumwani
Boxing Federation of Kenya’s tight slate of key events this year is expected to kick off at the close of the week when the Youth and Junior Championships take place in Nairobi.
The three-day competition hosted by the Nairobi County Boxing Association will take place from January 5 to January 7 2023 at the Pumwani Hall starting from 2pm.
According to BFK Communications Director Duncan Kuria, the championships will act as an avenue towards heeding the call from the National Olympic Committee –Kenya (NOCK), that required the federation to provide a group of youth national team members expected to participate in a two-week long camp slated for next week.
“The championships will be timely for us and our young boxers,” Kuria stated. “I praise the move from NOCK because it will offer juniors a chance to focus and interact with top coaches – with our eyes on future championships.”
BFK has earmarked a couple of other youth and junior championships later this year; the ANOCA Youth Africa Championships set for March and September’s AFBC Youth Championships.
A group of 10 boxers in November missed a trip to the IBA Youth Championships in La Nucia, Spain and Kuria is hopeful that apart from those in the Under-18 getting another shot, that the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Sports and Arts will offer extra support to the federation this year.
“Our federation has already presented the budget and calendar to the Sports Cabinet Secretary,” Kuria mentioned. “All we hope for is that the ministry will come in handy to help us participate in the international tournaments this year.”
Key on the events calendar as per Kuria will be the All Africa Games – that will form part of the first qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympics as well as give a clear picture of Kenya’s 2023 Hit Squad.
The former pugilist however expressed concern with IOC’s boxing taskforce decision to allot fewer quota for African boxers to the Olympics. That, plus a reduction of the available weight categories in the men’s scene will potentially see Kenya field a lesser squad to the Olympics – a scenario Kuria refers to as ‘unfair’ to the rest of the hardworking group.
The other top international championships in 2023 include the IBA Women’s and Men’s World Boxing Championships scheduled for March and May in New-Delhi, India and Tashkent, Uzbekistan respectively.
Following the County Youth and Junior Championships will be the National Novices and Intermediates slated for February and March – the same month when the Africa Zone 3 Championships begin.
