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THE Zimbabwe Boxing Federation Open tournament held in Bulawayo over the weekend ended up being a club competition as the provinces failed to turn up for the event.
The national federation wanted to use the tournament to start their selection process for the junior and senior national teams to represent the country in different regional competition lined up for this year.
However, most provinces did not attend the tournament and the organisers decided to let participants compete under their clubs.
And Bulawayo’s Nketa club dominated the competition with their boxers winning most of the bouts.
They won five of the 14 bouts staged for the senior and juniors.
Gweru fielded three fighters and they all won their matches with Liberty Muwani beating Waisheny Jonga by a knockout in the seniors’ middle weight division.
Joseph Simango beat Sherpard Machaya on points in the bantamweight division and Prince Mudyanadzo defeated Andile Ncube on points in the lightweight section.
ZBF technical director, Petros Masiyambumbi, said they believe the provinces will be ready when they host their second tournament.
“We managed to have 14 bouts, we ended up having a situation whereby clubs had to compete on their own.
We had eight clubs from Bulawayo, Gweru and Matabeleland South and one boxer from ZNA.
“I think most of the provinces have not started preparing for the games but we just expect all provinces to come for the next tournament because we have to meet the deadlines we have been told to meet by SRC and the Zone Six Games management. “For this tournament we needed all people because we wanted to come up with a long list for the Zone Six Games and besides we wanted to select our seniors’ team.
“However, to those that came we managed to select five boxers.
The reason why we have adopted this system is we cannot consider those that came to the National Youth Games because some of the fighters that come for those Games just compete in that event only,” said Masiyambumbi.
Masiyambumbi said they are going to hold another tournament on March 22 as they continue with their selection process.
Online Reporter