adminLangton Nyakwenda
Sports Reporter
WHILE the biggest boxing news in Kenya last week was arguably that of Christine Ongare – the female pugilist who defied the odds to qualify for the Olympics – in Zimbabwe it was yet another chapter of soul-searching, after a dark hour for the sport on foreign soil.
The 26-year-old Ongare fell pregnant at the age of 12 but recovered from that ordeal to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games after defeating Ugandan opponent Catherine Nanziri in the women’s flyweight division at the Africa Boxing Olympic Qualification tournament in Dakar, Senegal, last weekend.
While Zimbabwe’s neighbours Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia will all be represented at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, once again, there will be no boxer from this country at the quadren-nial sports showcase.
Former bantamweight boxer, Ndaba Dube, who went to the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea, remains the last Zimbabwean pugilist to feature at an Olympic gathering.
Ndabezihle Petros Phiri (flyweight), Freeman Mabvongwe (lightweight) and Brendan “Boika” Denes (lightweight) represented Zimbabwe and failed to go past the quarter-finals stage.
Denes’ participation has actually caused chaos in local boxing after the World Boxing Federation (WBF) stripped him of his intercontinental title for fighting in an amateur competition.
“The policy of the World Boxing Federation pertaining to the Olympics is abundantly clear.
“The WBF does not approve of professional fighters, let alone WBF champions, competing against amateurs in the Olympic Games.
“Any WBF champion will have his or her title vacated should they participate in the Olympics,” read a letter written to Charles Manyuchi Academy by the WBF on February 19.
Charles Manyuchi Academy director and emerging promoter, Prosper Chibaya, confirmed WBF’s move.
On the other hand, Zimbabwe Boxing Federation (ZBF), who are the custodians of amateur box-ing, argue that all boxers registered with their organisation are automatically affiliated to the Inter-national Boxing Association (AIBA).
AIBA allows professional boxers to come down to amateur level when representing their coun-tries.
However, AIBA is no longer recognised by the International Olympic Committee over governance issues.
ZBF secretary Arvian Mathe insists that Denes was eligible for the Olympic qualifiers.
“For starters, Denes is still registered with the ZBF because we had not yet cleared him to become a professional.
“Besides, ZBF boxers are automatically affiliated to AIBA, which allows boxers to represent their countries.
“A number of countries, including Kenya, Uganda and Cameroon, fielded some professional boxers at the qualifiers but there have been no problems in their countries. I suspect there is some boxing politics at play here at home.
“Our understanding is that when you have reached the silver or gold categories of professional belts then you cannot come down to amateur (level). We even consulted the boxers’ stables be-fore we took these boxers,” said Mathe.
Notwithstanding the Denes’ saga, Zimbabwe’s shoddy approach to major tournaments was once again brought to the fore as the country had one of the worst preparations relative to the other 37 nations that took part at the Olympic qualifiers.
Zimbabwe’s team manager, Stephen Masiyambumbi, attributed the poor preparations to lack of sponsorship.
“I was totally impressed with the performance considering that we did not have any support in terms of resources and training equipment. There was no camping; some boys were even staying at the coach’s place,” said Masiyambumbi.
“Look at Botswana, they camped in France and Cuba; most of the countries went to Europe. It is high time we start taking preparations seriously.”
ZBF vice chairman Isaac Gora feels his association did its best.
“As ZBF we did our best given the circumstances,” said Gora.
The ZBF is in charge of amateur boxing, which is the nursery for future professional champions.
“Our preparations were not the best, we did not camp and we had no kit. The boxers had to sacri-fice and they went to Senegal with no proper kit.
“Initially, the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee pledged to give us a full package that included camp-ing, kitting, airfares and accommodation for a contingent of 12.
“However, they told us at the last minute that they were no longer able to give us all that. Instead, they only gave us air tickets and accommodation for five people. This meant we had to take three boxers only and two officials.”
The Zimbabwe Olympic Committee has, however, urged national associations to play an active role in developing their athletes.
“In response to the comment that lack of proper preparation and sponsorship were to blame for the failure to qualify, one must interrogate widely the myriad of factors related to developing and participating a sport code at elite level and whether the roles were undertaken by the responsible parties,” argued ZOC chief executive Anna Mguni.
“ZOC has the mandate to support preparation and to participate athletes at the Olympic Games, which is essentially only one component on its long-term high-performance plan.
“National federations have the overall long-term role and responsibility to develop, prepare and compete athletes in qualification events. Where possible, and justified, ZOC comes in with the requisite assistance,” she said.
Veteran boxing promoter Stalin Mau Mau feels Zimbabwe should have not sent a team to Sene-gal, given the circumstances.
“No one was supposed to go because we were not ready, but obviously some officials were just hungry to travel, not really to go and win,” said Mau Mau.
Clyde Musonda, a former Commonwealth and All-Africa Games boxer, questioned the selection criteria used in coming up with the participants.
“The selection was not done properly. I thought we left out some good boxers,” said Musonda.
But Masiyambumbi disagrees.
“There was a criteria that we used, every year we do our national championships so that we have a national champion for each category.
“We selected about 10 boxers, we also had an international tournament in Victoria Falls where we tested these boys, some of them lost and we had to drop them
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