A Board member of the Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF), Azanian Omo- Agege, has said the country’s boxers have what it takes to make the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games despite the cancellation of the final boxing qualifier by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expected to have taken place in Paris.
The cancellation of the qualifiers came as a result of COVID-19 restrictions and some other logistics with IOC looking forward to using rankings by continents to qualify athletes for the Games.
Speaking on a radio programme monitored in Lagos recently, Omo-Agege said he was not aware of the postponement but of the opinion that the country’s boxers can make it to Tokyo through rankings.
“The Federation has not been officially informed but I have been hearing it about it on the news,” he said.
“However, I believe the qualifiers can be moved to other regions of the world, especially regions that are having lower rate of COVID- 19 cases.
“If it is going to be about rankings, I am sure our boxers are good to go especially from the continent, although I am of the opinion that the qualifiers might still come up in other region.”
After cancelling the qualifiers, the IOC revealed that the 53 spots for the Games would be based on rankings as per each continent. Meanwhile, the NBF have pulled out of another championship in Senegal due to lack of funds.
–newtelegraphng.com
