The coach of the national amateur boxing team, Kwasi Ofori Asare, has charged stakeholders of boxing to take advantage of the AIBA Year of Africa project to upgrade their skills and knowledge in the sport.
The AIBA Year of Africa is an initiative of the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA) designed to rediscover, grow, develop and make boxing a permanent feature on the continent.
In an interview with the Graphic Sports yesterday in Accra, Coach Ofori Asare noted that the project was good for Africa.
According to the AIBA Instructor, the free programme launched in South Africa on March 16 this year, was a once in a lifetime project which Ghanaian boxing coaches, technical officials and other officials must embrace wholeheartedly.
“It is about time we enriched all our boxing departments and sectors with the latest upgrade in the sport,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Coach Ofori Asare has rued the inability of the Black Bombers to travel to Brazzaville for a crucial tournament which served as a qualifier for the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Hamburg.
According to him the Bombers would miss out on the world rankings as a result, and would also be ineligible to compete for the prize money at stake for the Amateur Professional Boxing (APB) and World Series boxing competitions.
“The boxers would also be affected psychologically and physically in any future major competition due to lack of exposure”, he stated.
He disclosed that boxing in Ghana had a very long way to go in respect of all aspects of the game, adding that with the right resources and infrastructure, things might change.
He called for a serious attitude on the part of the authorities towards the sport and expressed the hope that boxing would regain its national pastime again.
