“She has had a mental breakdown so she has just taken a break to rest and heal,” says her coach Setlalekgosi.
Botswana’s most successful female boxer Keamogetse Kenosi has announced her retirement from boxing, blaming the national federation of negligence.
Kenosi is quoted by weekly newspaper, Voice Sport, as saying she has called it a day in boxing.
Without elaborating, Kenosi accused Boxing Association of Botswana (BoBA) of “stretching her to the physical limit” and described the federation as cold and uncaring.
Efforts to contact Kenosi were fruitless. She did not respond to my calls and messages.
The head coach of Botswana’s national team, Thebe Setlalekgosi, has however refuted the story in Voice Sport.
Contacted, Setlalekgosi said it’s not true that Kenosi has quit boxing, and that owing to a mental breakdown she has been given a break to relax and be counselled.
“She has not quit, she is my boxer at club level, she had a mental breakdown and I have let her go to rest and heal,” said Setlalekgosi who is also Kenosi’s coach at Diamond Trading Company Botswana Boxing Club (DTCB).
“She will come back when she is ready. Mental health is a serious issue in sports and must handled with a lot of care. She will be seeing professionals from next week. Kenosi has been with the national team for 10 solid years fighting at the highest level. She’s now tired, dropping weight took a toll on her, she therefore needs a break to recover.”
Responding to Kenosi’s announcement, BoBA secretary-general Taolo Tlouetsile – a former journalist – said they’re shocked by Kenosi’s sudden decision to quit boxing but wondered what she meant by saying BoBA had stretched Kenosi to the physical limit.
“What exactly is stretching her? Anyway, the coaches are in a better position to answer that question,” said Tlouetsile.
He went on:”As for hanging her gloves, I think it’s a personal choice. We can’t stand on her way. Let’s hope she’ll still serve the sport in one way or the other. It’s also her choice to do so, we can’t force it.”
The 27-year-old Kenosi burst into the limelight in 2014 when she won gold in the African Youth Games in Botswana’s capital city, Gaborone.
She maintained her scintillating show, winning another gold in the Zone 4 Championships in 2019 at home, and in that same year went on to win featherweight gold in the African Games in Rabat, Morocco.
Shen then made history as Botswana’s first ever female boxer to take part in the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020.
Kenosi then won another gold medal in the 2022 Africa Elite Championships in Maputo, beating her rival Marcelat Sakobi from DR Congo for the second time in a row having defeated the DRC boxer in Rabat.
After Maputo, her form dipped. She lost to Sakobi in the Paris Olympic qualifiers last year in Dakar, Senegal, and in this year’s African Games in Accra, she settled for a bronze medal at lightweight, the consolation here being Botswana’s only medal in the African Games boxing tournament.
There was no respite for Kenosi on her indifferent results as she returned home empty-handed from Durban, South Africa where she was among the boxers who represented Botswana in the inaugural Mandela African Cup Boxing tournament in April.
AFBC Communications