Kenya has set out on an abrasive mission to restore its lost glory as a boxing superpower, Boxing Federation of Kenya communications director, Dancun Kuria has said.
Kuria said the federation already has its work cut out and it won’t be long before it achieves its ambitious objective.
“The only thing we need to do is to bring Hit Squad to the required standards and it demands a lot of work to restore the team to where it was in the ’70s and ’80s, Kuria said.
The ex-Kenyan international appealed to local boxing enthusiasts to desist from judging the current crop of players harshly based on their lackadaisical show at major global events.
“We didn’t get a chance to prepare well before taking our team to major events. It’s very unfortunate that our first assignments were in the world’s top competitions such as the 2020 Tokyo Games and the World Boxing Championship in Belgrade Serbia,” Kuria said.
Hit Squad’s performance in recent years has been a cause for concern and the country has been left reminiscing about the good old days when the team rocked the boxing arena.
However, Kuria reckons Hit Squad’s stellar show at the just concluded Africa Zone 3 Championship in Kinshasa Congo attests to the country’s rising standards in recent months, Kuria said.
“I’m convinced the team that we have is strong enough to deliver better results even though they performed a lot much better compared to last year when we had only one gold medalist. This time around we had six of them, quite a massive improvement in my view,” Kuria observed.
“I still believe that the team could have achieved much better results had it not been for poor officiating that we experienced during the tournament.
“Even the boxers who didn’t win any medal gave a good account of themselves. And they are looking forwards to future assignments where when they get a chance to represent the country they all intend to perform very well,” Kuria said.
Kenya scooped a total of 18 medals in the momentous swoop to emerge second behind hosts DRC after bagging six gold, five silver, and seven bronze.
–the-star.co.ke
