🇿🇦 Countdown to Mandela African Boxing Cup Tournament in Durban, South Africa, April 15-21
YOUTH BOXERS GRADUATE
▫️ Keobakeng and Kutlwano promoted to senior Botswana team for Mandela tourney
Lethabo on standby pending doctor’s greenlight.
Two female boxers, featherweight Keobakeng Phillips and light-welterweight Kutlwano Sekhutlo, have been promoted to Botswana’s senior team of nine boxers – four women and five men – to feature in the inaugural Mandela African Boxing Cup set for Durban from April 15-21.
The two 19-year-old boxers represented the landlocked Southern African country in last year’s Region Five Youth Games in Malawi with Keobakeng, a member of University of Botswana Boxing Club, winning a silver medal in the featherweight division while Kutlwano, who represents Sir Seretse Khama Barracks Boxing Club, returned home without a medal.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Lethabo Modukanele has been put on standby pending a final medical report on her injury which has healed but she must receive a clean bill of health from the doctor.
“She’s training but we need a medical clearance. She’s part of our plans,” said Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) Secretary-General Taolo Tlouetsile.
The rest of the team comprises regulars among them men’s flyweight Rajab Otukile Mahommed, bantamweight George Molwantwa (pictured) and African Games female featherweight bronze medallist Keamogetse Kenosi who has now moved up to lightweight.
Head coach Thebe Setlalekgosi retains his position as the head coach and will be assisted by Gibson Rauwe and Pearl Mooketsi.
Other team members are female bantamweight Phekie Bele with minimumweight Kobamelo Molatlhegi, featherweight Mmoloki Sekwaipe and light-welterweight Kabo Seitshiro completing the men’s team.
Kobamelo, Otukile, Sheitshiro and Molwantwa were in Botswana’s World Championships team in Uzbekistan last year but it’s only Molwantwa who went past the round of 32, losing to Ghana’s Amadu Mohammed in the last 16.
Coupled with their unimpressive performance in the African Games in Accra where they just managed a bronze by Kenosi, Botswana, winners of the 2019 Zone 4 tournament for Southern African countries, will therefore be desperately seeking to redeem themselves in Durban.
There’s also the Southern African countries battle for supremacy in which Zambia currently sits on top of them all following their fifth placing in the African Games in Accra with two gold, three silver and two bronze medals.
✍🏼 AFBC Communication