Boxers’ Olympic dreams collapse

RWANDA’s hopes of sending boxers to the 2012 Olympic Games in London are all but over after failing to send a two man boxing team to Africa’s Olympic qualifying tournament which starts today in Morocco over negligence and wrangles between the boxing federation and the Olympic Committee.The duo of Salim Kwizera (56kg-Bantam weight) and Jean Morris Bikorimana (64kg-Light Welter) missed out on participating in the event on the last hour.The duo who had packed their bags was denied the opportunity of competing in the event without any clear reason.According to association president, Cyatwa Ngarambe, the boxers could not go without anyone accompanying them.Initially, head coach Gashugi Kananura had snubbed accompanying the duo to Morocco because they were deemed unfit to compete at the African event but in a turn of events, the local Olympic committee which is supposed to help athletes meet Olympic requirements decided to do the needful and have the duo compete in the event.Gashugi said, “I requested training camp for seven boxers from the Olympic committee as well as the federation and my request was not given a positive nod.“They later reduced the number of boxers to compete in Morocco from seven to three and later to two and now they want them to compete in the African tournament without any preparations,”“I can’t escort un-fit boxers who have not trained and will be in Morocco just for participation other than searching for minimum qualification requirements. I don’t want to tarnish my name nor the name of my nation.“I am ranked a star 2-coach on AIBA ranking and managing such a boxer who is not well prepared and whom I think will not even perform to his best will affect my ranking not mentioning the image it will bring to our country,” added Gashugi.However, Raba boss Ngarambe believed the duo would gain exposure and experience other than vying for medals.“They never had enough training but this event would give them exposure and experience,” added Cyatwa.By mid-day, yesterday, the duo were in a positive mood getting ready to embark on a Morocco-bound plane but things started turning from bad to worse when Kwizera was told that he had no passport and could not travel.“We failed to get his passport because the process of requesting for his service passport was done on the last minute thus could not get it,” said Ngarambe.Two hours later, Bikorimana was also given sad news that he could not board the plane.The London Games chef de Mission Serge Mwambali could not be able to give a comment on the development saying he was in a meeting.However, this development shows chaos that is surrounding this year’s Olympic Games preparations. The Olympic Committee was made known of this tournament in January and until today, the boxing federation has always been kept in suspense on whether they could send their athletes to Africa’s only qualifying tournament which gives boxers an opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Games.

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Boxers’ Olympic dreams collapse