‘Commander’ Okoth eager to put his Russian experience to test

‘Hit Squad’ captain Nick Okoth popularly known as ‘commander’ in boxing circles is hoping to get an elite field to test the lessons he picked from the Konstantin Korotkov Memorial International Boxing Championship in Russia where he settled for bronze.

Up against home player Ovik Oganisyan in the semi, the Kenya Defence Forces’ (KDF) boxer lost the five rounds 30-27, 30-26, 30-27, 30-27, 30-26 to lose a chance for the final and drop down to the third-place playoff. He defeated Japan’s Tomo Tsuboi for bronze.

Okoth had led in all five rounds of his quarter-final bout against Ukrainian Kishko Sergey, to qualify for the semi. He played for a close 29:28 win in the first round and a dominant identical 30:27 win in the subsequent rounds to reach the last four.

"Boxing keeps evolving and such tournaments are such an eye-opener for us. We have established ourselves as the best in the East Africa region but if we are to conquer the continent and the world, we need this kind of exposure. We have a lot to learn from other elite boxers. If we had participants in such tournaments regularly, we would have a bigger number of Kenyan boxers qualifying for the global competitions,”  

“I am working on my punching, movement on the ring and turning. From the Russian outing, I picked valuable lessons and new ways of executing on the ring. After the short break we have taken, we will sit with the coaching staff and come up with a way to implement all the lessons picked in Russia,” offered Okoth.

Speaking metaphorically, Okoth says the Olympics-bound quartet have had a taste of the thicket that is elite boxing and gotten snake bites so they will be more careful the next time they have to go through the same path.

“If the federation, through the government can give us a tournament where we can put the lessons picked from Russia to test, that will help us gauge our preparedness as well boost our confidence going into Tokyo,” he added. 

Okoth will be making a return to the Olympics after a 12-year hiatus. His other achievements include winning a bantamweight bronze medal at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and a lightweight bronze medal at the 2015 Brazzaville All Africa Games. He clinched gold at the 2015 African Boxing Championship, also in Congo Brazzaville. In 2005, he clinched the African Zone 5 title at Moi Stadium, Kasarani.

He also won gold at the African Olympics qualifiers in Namibia in 2008, which qualified him for Beijing Summer Games where, in his debut, he lost to Mexican Arturo Santos Reyes in the preliminary rounds.