Rwanda Amateur Boxing Association (Raba) has line up two build up fights for its boxers ahead of their participation in second round of the Beijing Olympic qualifier scheduled for March 23-April 2 in Windhoek, Namibia.

Raba technical director, Gashugi Kananura told Times Sport yesterday that they have since called off the first qualifying phase due to be held in Algiers at the end of this month.

"We shall have two international build up fights for our boxers in mid February in preparation for the Namibia qualifier. We shall have the Bombers squad of Uganda and Kenya Police boxing club,” Gashugi said.

Gashugi who also doubles as the national team trainer noted that despite missing out on the first qualifier in Algeria, the team could do well in Namibia thus booking the ticket to the Beijing Games set for August 8-24.

"We are still waiting for funds to enter the team in a residential training. Currently all selected boxers are undergoing non residential training at Amahoro stadium gym,” he stated.

The international boxing governing body, AIBA has prepared qualifiers for each of its members- America, Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania, in which each continent will host two qualifiers.

With African continent entitled to take 60 boxers to this year’s Olympic Games, Rwanda has to secure a qualifying spot in the Namibia after financial constraints meant that they miss the Algeria round.

Rwanda is not the only country in this region to miss the Algeria qualifier, even Uganda has also pulled out due to lack of time to prepare a new squad.

Reports from Kampala indicate that Uganda Amateur Boxing Federation (UABF) will now concentrate on efforts to assemble a team for the final qualifier due in Namibia.

Currently, Uganda has no bombers squad; the remaining bomber Ismail Miwendo based in USA is not ready for Algeria qualifier but will be available for Namibia.

Three members of the ‘Bombers’ squad, who included Shariff Bogere, Edward Akora and Attanus Mugerwa, went AWOL during the World Championships in Chicago last year and haven’t returned.

This, sources say, left the local federation with the tough task of building a new team from scratch, just three months to the end of the Olympic qualifiers.

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