BoBA takes competitions to the regions
Teichler Rankoa | Wednesday August 20, 2014 10:34
The association’s public relation’s officer, Mmaotho Segotso told Mmegi Sport yesterday that some clubs are far from the main venues of Gaborone, Francistown, Lobatse and Selebi-Phikwe and this makes it difficult for them to fully participate in all competitions held in these centres because of financial constraints.
“To start our mission to promote and support boxing in the villages and regions far away from cities and towns, we will be holding a boxing tournament in Kang, Kgalagadi region on August 30-31, where we expect to have a large number of boxers from all Kgalagadi region boxing clubs,” Segotso said.
She stated that the objective of boxing clubs in the regions is to promote the sport, provide an opportunity for social interaction and to help get youth out of wrong-doing.
However, the clubs’ financial situation makes the task a daunting one.
She said boxing clubs do not have sponsors, so travelling to competitions will always be a problem for some of them, especially those which are far from the venues.
“That is why most of our tournaments sometimes fail to attract the expected number of boxers,” she said. She said there are strong and well established boxing clubs in Kgalagadi and Ghanzi with promising talent, but because of financial problems, they sometimes miss important competitions held outside their regions.
Segotso noted that at times because of the clubs’ limited funds, only a few boxers from each club are transported to competitions.
This has led to many boxers quitting the sport.
To stem the tide, Segotso said the association has decided to hold competitions in areas where there are many boxing clubs like Kgalagadi.
She explained that these regional competitions will improve the number of participating boxers.