🇹🇭 Countdown to 2nd World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Thailand from May 24 to June 2, 2024
MOZAMBIQUE COACH LUCAS SINOIA OOZING CONFIDENCE IN BANGKOK
I’ve spoken with the organisers to let Alcinda take part, says coach Sinoia
Mozambique coach Lucas Sinoia is confident of getting more qualifiers to join Alcinda Dos Santos, the only qualifier from Southern Africa so far. She qualified in the welterweight class in last year’s Africa qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal.
“I have a team of five boxers here in Bangkok, we’ll not go back home with nothing,” says the quietly spoken coach who groomed from scratch Alcinda and her best friend Rady Gramane (pictured) both double African champions. He spotted them 11 years ago on the streets of Maputo jogging and convinced the duo to join his gym to try their hand in boxing.
Reluctant at first, viewing boxing as a violent sport, they finally agreed and the rest is history.
He transformed the two into boxing celebrities, becoming the first female boxers south of Sahara to win medals at the world championships in 2022 in Turkey where Alcinda won silver and bronze for middleweight Gramane..
While Alcinda has already qualified, Gramane has not. She’s therefore preparing for the fight of her life to join Alcinda.
“I’ve spoken to the organisers here for Alcinda to be in the ring, they’ve told to wait for the response, I know the rules because she has already qualified for Paris but I want her to box here to tune up for the Olympics,” Sinoia, who represented Mozambique national team in the 1988 and 1996 Olympics, told me in a telephone interview from his hotel in Bangkok.
In addition to Alcinda and Gramane, other boxers in Bangkok are Mandela Cup featherweight champion Armando Sigauque, Tiago Muxanga and Bernado Marime.
✍🏼 AFBC Communications