|
Blood thirsty fans from Liwonde and other surrounding areas will from Saturday be treated to a boxing feast as Malawi Boxing Association, (Maba) hosts this year’s national amateur boxing championships at the country’s boxing Mecca, Sun Village Hotel.
According to Maba secretary general Henry Sakala, 36 boxers selected from the country’s three regions will slug it out during the two-day event that will see Maba identifying the country’s representatives in forth coming international engagements like the Zone VII Amateur Championship to be held alongside Sadc games in Mozambique, in April.
“We have selected 12 boxers from each of the three regions. These were outstanding during inter-club competitions held within the regions. However, we expect the number of boxers to go up because individual boxers will be free to participate in the championships.
“We are mainly encouraging heavyweight boxers to take part in the championships because we are lacking heavyweights in the country. However, all boxers, coming as individuals will fend for themselves as we don’t have enough resources,” said Sakala.
Sakala said Maba would refund part of transport costs for the regional teams apart from meeting their food and accommodation costs.
The Maba general secretary said outstanding boxers from the tournament would represent Malawi in the forthcoming international competitions like the Zone Six.
“The Zone VII tournament was supposed to he held in Maputo this week but it has been shifted to April when Mozambique will host the first ever Sadc games, which Malawi and Lesotho failed to host.
“We will also take these boxers to Botswana for the Olympic qualifying bouts slated for March 15th to 24th” said Sakala.
Among the boxers expected to step into the ring are Chimwemwe Chiotcha who scooped a bronze medal during last year’s Zone VII Championship in Angola, Mzuzu-based Bronze Singini, Mustafa Ajibu from Lilongwe, Wellington Balakasi from Zomba and Blantyre-based upcoming boxers Osgood Kayuni and Wilson Masamba.
|
