AFBC should act decisively on Tashkent debacle
The 21st edition of Men’s World Boxing Championships is over.
Winners are all smiles scooping medals and attractive prize money to boot.
Africa, with 99 boxers from 28 countries, once again like it happened in 2019 and 2021 Men’s World Championships, did not win a single medal in Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent. This is shameful and a big embarrassment to the continent.
The African Boxing Confederation (AFBC) President Bertrand Mendouga and his team should not treat the Tashkent debacle lightly by watching this unfolding sad scenario from the terraces.
Roll up your sleeves and call a spade a spade. You must show your concern on why 99 boxers from Africa failed to win a single medal in Tashkent. Ask yourselves why is Africa now short of naturally gifted boxers who used to conquer the world without any meaningful exposure and using modern facilities for training the likes of Azumah Nelson, Ayub Kalule, David Kotey, Philip Waruinge, Leo Rwabogo, Davidson Andeh, Obisia Nwankpa, Julius Luipa, Lottie Mwale, Steve Muchoki to mention but a few.
It’s also the right time for AFBC to scrutinise with a toothcomb how member federations conduct their affairs and act decisively to rectify any management anomaly that might be a contributory factor to the Tashkent debacle and failure in other major tournaments.
In case you notice any anomaly, use the big stick to rectify the situation as the parent boxing body in Africa. This should be done now. Take the bull by the horns even if it means making a few enemies provided you’ve taken the right decision.
As officials and boxers miserably push their trolleys at the airport in Tashkent to board their flights back to Africa empty-handed, national federation barons must ask themselves pertinent questions aimed at rectifying the situation. It should not be business as usual. Heads should roll if need be to streamline their operations. Stop treating under-achievers with kid gloves lest you sink with them.
Among the questions you should ask yourselves:
1) For how long will this indifferent performance continue?
2) When will you solicit for sponsorship from the corporate world to ensure you prepare your teams adequately to supplement government’s support instead of always visiting government offices with your begging bowls whiles you know your governments are financially overburdened with other pressing issues such as health, infrastructure and education?
3) If you have any conscience, don’t you feel ashamed of yourselves for your respective governments using their meagre resources to fund your foreign trips but you don’t achieve anything?
4) What have you not done right knowing very well running a federation is not a picnic?
5) Is your coaching and selection system okay?
6) When was the last time you held a national selection tournament to pick more capable and deserving boxers from all parts of your country where you have active boxers?
7) Must you take part in such big and competitive tournaments when you’re well aware you’ve not prepared adequately?
8) Or is it the lure of perdiem and that rare foreign trip that overrides the performance of your teams?
9) Have you put the right structures in place in your boxing development plan or you’re running your organisations like a personal kiosk with a few loyalists calling the shots thereby denying capable stakeholders a chance to share their wealth of knowledge and useful input which could improve your performance?
10) For how long will you take part in such prestigious events without a game plan?
11) Why are some of your boxers not improving despite the exposure you’ve given them, and must they always be in your national teams yet they’ve underachieved?
12) When will you embrace the importance of undergoing early and adequate preparations for a tournament of this magnitude in Tashkent so that you compete for medals, and not take part as gamblers relying on luck?
Kudos however to some of the African boxers for your spirited and commendable performance in Tashkent. You went down fighting.
Judging from their poor showing, some boxers had no business being in Tashkent because their low standards did not meet this high profile event. How they made it to Tashkent is not only questionable but shameful. To a larger extent, it’s a reflection of the shoddy management of boxing in some African national federations in which professionalism has been thrown out of the window.
For such highly competitive tournaments, you only take the best. Not mediocre performers who’ve not been seriously tested.
In my opinion, it’s only Zambia’s Africa flyweight champion Patrick Chinyemba (pictured in red attire) who I can authoritatively say was robbed of a clearcut win in his quarter-final bout against Spain’s Martin Molina. Of course, there were some close decisions which could have gone either way.
Needless to say, most of the African boxers were beaten fair and square. In such tournaments, learn to win convincingly. There’s no shortcut.
So, don’t go back home with a bagful of excuses because most of us in boxing watched the bouts. You’ve nowhere to hide.
Accept honourably you lost to more skillful, well exposed, technically superior and mentally sharper opponents whose national federations work with clinical efficiency and take such tournaments seriously through adequate preparations and incentives for their boxers.
If you have any conscience, some of you should quit. But this being Africa it rarely happens.
NENEZ MEDIA SERVICES