14 Jun 2017

Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) has sent two teams of boxers to represent Botswana at the AFBC African Boxing Championships billed for June 17-25 in Congo, Brazzaville.

The team from the men’s side is comprised of Mahomed Otukile (52kg), George Molwantwa (56kg), Kefentse Molalapata (60kg) and Kabo Seitshiro (64kg) as well as Zibani Chikanda (75kg) doubling up as team captain.

In the women’s side, the team comprises Lethabo Modukanele (48kg), Beauty Phori (51kg), Keamogetse Kenosi (60kg) and Aratwa Kasemang (64kg).

The much decorated team left for the Championships on June 14.  

Although the final selection took longer than expected, the technical team had to wait until Saturday last week at the inter club competitions to make their final choice.

While some of the participating countries sent their teams to Brazzaville earlier, national team head coach, Lechedzani Luza is not worried that much because he says the preparations have really borne some fruit given the three weeks of preparatory training camp plus inter club competitions held in various places.

Luza is confident to face off his opponents.

“We are ready.” said the Botswana national team gaffer ahead of their journey to the central African region.  

He affirmed although that he anticipated a stiff competition from the Arabs.

“The Arabs team is quite strong,” he said.

BoBA public relations officer, Kenny Maragana concurred with Luza, saying that the team had prepared well and are hopeful the pugilists would bring back medals given their performance in major competitions in the continent.

Although Luza said that he was betting on Chikanda, who was also the current BNSC sports man of the year to have a podium finish, there were other young promising athletes who had the potential to bring medals.

In particular, in the ladies side, the nation can look out for Keamogetse Kenosi, who has several titles under her belt.  

She is a gold medalist for the Africa championships that were held in Morocco last year.

Again, she is the 2014 youth games gold medalist as well as the national championship gold medalist, among others.

On the men’s side, one can also look out for Mahomed Otukile, 2014 and Africa Union Sports Council Region five Sylver medallist.

The rest of the team will use the championships to gain experience on a bigger stage.

Luza has also highlighted that his team was relatively new, therefore their goal was to perform exceptionally in order to qualify for the World Boxing Championships to be held in Hamburg, Germany with their eyes set on Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The team has also left with two assistant coaches; Emmanuel Galeboe and Junior Moeti as well as a doctor. ENDS