Hit Squad get greenlight for Cuba trip, team to travel Friday night

After weeks of deliberations, it is now official that Kenya’s national boxing team, Hit Squad will be heading out to Cuba on Friday night, for what Mozzart Sport understands will be a week of intense boxing training ahead of Africa’s Olympic qualifiers scheduled for 6-16 September in Dakar, Senegal.

As it had been reported last week, Hit Squad officials and those from the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Sports and the Arts had entered into an agreement on necessitating the trip earlier this year, and after finalizing the details this week, the team of 12 boxers plus technical team will visit Havana - Cuba’s capital city - before embarking on the Paris 2024 Olympics qualification journey in Dakar.

“Really excited that there has finally been a breakthrough,” Boxing Federation of Kenya Communications Director Duncan Kuria said, adding that their flight was scheduled for 10 pm Kenyan time. “A big thanks to the Ministry and Cabinet Secretary of Sports for finding it necessary to boost the team’s preparations in this manner.

“It's something that we have been hoping for and I believe the days spent there will impact both coaches and boxers in regards to them finetuning their skills and increasing Kenya’s chances for success.”

Among the boxers revealed by team head coach Benjamin Musa and made official last week, only one - light heavyweight Robert Okaka - will miss due to official and work reasons - with the remaining 12 gunning for the seven male and 11 female boxer spots in the continent set to travel.

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Since the 1970s, Cuban boxers have taken home more than 100 medals in Olympic Games and other World Amateur Boxing competitions.

Eligio “Kid Chocolate” Sardiñas, Cuba’s first world boxing champion (1931), Gerardo “Kid Gavilan” Gonzalez, world welterweight champion (1951) and Benny Paret, two-time world welterweight champion (1960 & 1961) are some of the Cuban boxer legends.

It is expected that in the coaches exchange program, Kenya’s team will experience the feel of the Rafael Trejo Boxing Gym located in Habana Vieja, and one that is equipped with an old ring and old stadium stands.

The club, one of the few in the region that offers training to foreigners, conveys a soul, a story of determination, work, perseverance and effort.

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The training and the sparring there follow one another all day long, the last ones going on at nightfall under the light of the spotlights of the ring.

The country’s Olympic record is a sorry one however; Kenya’s only gold medal in the Olympic Games came through Robert Wangila in 1998, with the last medal in the games coming in the same year - one that also saw Christopher Sande win bronze.

TRAVELING TEAM:

MEN- David Karanja (fly weight), Samuel Njau (featherweight), Ethan Maina (lightweight), Boniface Mugunde (Light middleweight), Peter Abuti (heavyweight), Fred Ramogi (super heavyweight).

WOMEN - Christine Ongare (Light flyweight), Amina Martha (Bantam weight), Pauline Chege (featherweight), Teresia Wanjiru (Lightweight), Frizah Anyango (Welterweight), Elizabeth Andiego (Middleweight).