Kenya: Prisons’ Pugilists Hope to End 2011 Season On a High

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

Chris Mbaisi

10 March 2011

THE 1999 league champions Kenya Prisons have named a strong team in readiness for the 2011. Coach James Oduori, said his boys are well conditioned and raring to go against their opponents in the Inter-Provincial Championship starting today. Unlike in the past two years when the event was held on a dual format, this year’s event will be done on a Championship basis.

The Meru tour begins today and will feature league champions Kenya Police “Chafua Chafua”, the hosts Meru, Nanyuki and Prisons.”It’s a good build-up for us and we can only hope for a good season,” said Oduori. Some of the boxers “The Warders” will be looking out for in their campaign are Kenya team ace Rayton Okwiri (welterweight) and veteran former longstanding Kenya international Daniel Shisia Amwayi. Shisia has temporarily moved a berth up from light-heavy to the heavyweight division to fill the void left by Olympian Aziz Ali who is being rested over what the Prisons officials said was ‘ team strategy’. “We are preserving Aziz for the league and we feel Shisia is a perfect replacement. We have opted to use Shisia at heavyweight but he’ll soon revert to his usual light heavyweight class when the National League starts in early April,” said Oduori.

The Prisons tactician said his team has been undergoing transformation for the past few years and are likely to pull a surprise this time round. The dominance of Kenya Police is indeed the reason why all teams fight to keep up with the standards.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Intermediates begin today at various provincial centres. Nairobi will stage their Intermediate Championships at Kaloleni Social Hall from today through to Saturday.

The event will be used to select boxers for the National Intermediates slated for March 24-26 at Ndenderu Hall. Nairobi official Musa Benjamin said only the finals in the recent Novice Championship will be eligible.

Nairobi will select a team of 10 boxers and some of the stars expected to make up the squad are the St. John’s duo of flyweight Daniel Ngugi and light-flyweight Francis Njuguna and super-heavyweight Collins Okoth from St. Teresas.

Benjamin said they are seriously assessing the Intermediates, besides weighing options ahead of Nairobi’s participation in the Inter-Cities in Kampala early next month.

Meanwhile, Armed Forces have intensified training at the Jamhuri Park base hoping to excel in the 2011 season. Deputy coach Sammy Magima said the boys are in awesome shape and ready to challenge Police this year.

In the Afaba team are the likes of twice Commonwealth Games light-heavyweight bronze medallist in Melbourne Joshua Ndere, welterweight Nick Abaka and light-welterweight Black Moses Mathenge.

Full Squad: l/fly: Chris Vidija, fly: Harrison Mathuku, Bantam: J. OKello, l/welter: Joseph Njogu, welter: Rayton Okwiri, Middle: Jacob Kimathi, l/heavy: Gorge Otieno, heavy: Daniel Shisia, s/heavy: James Abuoga.

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