By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE –
ZAMBIA Boxing Federation (ZBF) president Thomas Chileshe says a lot of work needs to be done by the boxers ahead of the 2015 All Africa Games slated for Congo Brazzaville.
Chileshe said the Zambian boxers are still raw despite the country emerging dominant at the just-ended African Union Sports Commission (AUSC) Region Five Games that were staged in Zimbabwe recently.
Boxers Timothy Chiyesu and Emmanuel Ngoma won gold medals and Nkumbu Silungwe settled for silver with Rabson Tembo winning bronze.
Chileshe said in an interview yesterday that there was still a lot of work to be done in order to raise the standards of boxers especially ahead of competitions like the All Africa Games.
He said Zambia had won numerous accolades in the regional championships and that it was time to shift attention to continental glory.
“Even if the boys managed to win medals, we are not satisfied as a federation because they did not prepare adequately for the championship. We have had enough of the regional victories and I think we need to ensure that prepare our boxers for bigger challenges than this,” Chileshe said.
Chileshe added that the ZBF will lobby the International Boxing Federation (AIBA) through the National Olympics Committee (NOC) for training programs of Zambian coaches.
According to the new AIBA rules revised last month during a conference in Jeju, South Korea, only holders of the Star Two coaching qualifications will be allowed to guide boxers at continental championships.
Zambia currently has Kennedy Kanyanta and Wisdom Mudenda as the only qualified coaches to guide the teams at continental tournaments.
“We are alive to the fact that we have to meet the requirements of AIBA and because of that, we want to ensure that most of the coaches, who hold Star one qualification are upgraded.
“The federation will therefore be asking the NOC to lobby for more training courses for our coaches before the All Africa Games,” he said.