21 Oct 2013

Flyweight (52kg) boxer, Oteng Oteng will face a Russian’s Misha Aloyan on Tuesday (October 22) in the second preliminary round of the on-going AIBA World Boxing Championships which kicked off on October 14 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Aloyan; a southpaw boxer and European Champion (2010) and World Champion (2011), beat Oteng 18-5 in the first preliminary round at the AIBA World Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan two years ago. Oteng progressed to the second round of the preliminaries after winning 3-0 against Norbert Kalucza of Hungary on Friday (Oct 18).  

The other two local boxers; Kagiso Bagwasi and Mooketsi Lekgetho are out of the competition after losing their bouts against Lee Sangmin of South Korea and Dusmatov Hasanboy of Uzbekistan boxers in the 60kg and 49kg respectively.

Bagwasi lost 1-2 against the South Korean boxer on October 15 while Lekgetho lost 3-0 to Uzbekistan boxer on Saturday (Oct 19); against an equally good opponent who is currently this year’s University Games champion.

Despite the two having lost their bouts, the team manager, Gilbert Khunwane however is happy with the boxers’ performance given that the competition was Bagwasi’s first big tournament after competing in the Zone IV championship in June this year. Again, competing at the world championships has also served as good preparation for Ikgopoleng and his boxers for next year’s Commonwealth Games.

There is also a Star 3 coaching course, the highest level coaching course, which Khunwane and the two team coaches, Khumiso Ikgopoleng and Thebe Setlalekgosi are also attending.

Meanwhile, the AIBA Men’s World Championships is an AIBA calendar event going back 39 years to its beginnings in 1974 when the competition made its debut in one of the heartlands of boxing in Havana, Cuba.

It features boxers aged 19 to 40 every two years to compete against the best in their division from around the world. Athletes participate in the official ten weight categories in accordance with the AIBA technical rules.    The championship ends on October 26 and boxers and their coaches are expected back home on October 28. ENDS