31 Aug 2020

Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) vice president and national team manager, Gilbert Khunwane says if all goes well, national team boxers will go on camp this month.

Already, he said in an interview that they had met with Botswana National Olympic Commitee to prepapre for camp.

Khunwane said though a lot of activities were put on hold due to COVID-19, they relied solely on clubs to monitor athletes’ training programmes.

He said they were forced to cancel scheduled tournaments due to COVID-19.

On Keamogetse Kenosi, who has booked a place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics scheduled for next year, Khunwane said he was happy that Kenosi was the only boxer to have booked a spot at the Olympics so far despite challenges that had seen sporting activities especially contact sport, being put on hold for quite some time.

Khunwane also revealed that one of the national team pugilists Tefo Maitewa would not be part of the team as he was not well and would be replaced with another  Tshepang Kapinga.

Meanwhile, Kenosi, who made history by becoming the first female boxer to qualify for the world’s preeminent sporting competition, said she was excited to have qualified for her first Olympics.

By becoming the first female boxer to qualify for the Olympics, has placed Kenosi ahead of her competitors in the feather weight category (54-57kg) with a confirmed status in the Tokyo 2020 Boxing Quota allocation.

The 12th All Africa Games Gold medalist’s road to Tokyo 2021 was not that easy.   Kenosi played against Algeria in the quarter-finals to advance to the semis at the African Olympic qualifiers held at Senegal early this year in February.

At the semifinals, she beat Morocco’s Widad Bertal 5-0 to comfortably book herself a place at the finals where she lost 5-0 to Tunisia’s Khouloud Hlimi.  

Her loss was attributed to lack of basic technique coupled with the fact that she was fighting a ‘very clever boxer’, according to BoBA’s public relations officer Taolo Tlouetsile.

The African Olympic qualifiers earned her silver medalist title in addition to her many accolades in her portfolio.

Despite the anxiety associated with facing competitors on such a big stage, she said she could not wait to experience the competitions at that level. So far three continents have already filled their slots. 

The European qualifiers will be held in February while America’s qualifiers will be in March and the World qualifiers scheduled for May.   

Those who have not qualified yet will get a second chance at the qualifying event in Paris, France in May. ENDS