Tourney postponed as BoBA clinches new deal

BOITUMELO KHUTSAFALO
Staff Writer | Tuesday November 15, 2011 00:00

The competition has been running without a sponsor for two years following the withdrawal of BBL through their product, Keone Mooka Mageu. With the launch of the new sponsor today, both parties agreed that the preliminaries be pushed to this weekend. Although he could not reveal the name of the new sponsor, BoBA publicity and information officer, Willough Kemoen did mention that they have clinched a three-year deal with their new partner.

'I can confirm that we have signed a three-year deal with our new sponsor and we will reveal it tomorrow at the launch. The preliminaries will now take place this coming weekend at the Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA).

The finals that were supposed to take place this Saturday would now be pushed to the following weekend,' he said. It would have been the first time Mahalapye hosted a boxing tournament, but Kemoen revealed that they managed to host about six bouts just to entertain and sensitize the people of Mahalapye about the sport.

'It is our aim to eventually see a boxing club being formed in Mahalapye and we hope if we continue to encourage the Mahalapye community, we can achieve that dream,' he said. 

Meanwhile, Kemoen said that the home coming of boxer, Oteng Oteng was successful.

The 2010 Boxer of the Year was honoured by his community in Mahalapye because of his exploits in the ring. He hails from Mookane but the event took place in Mahalapye, a sub-district under which his village falls. Among other achievements, Oteng won a gold medal at this year's All Africa Games held in Maputo, Mozambique.

'The people of Mahalapye came in large numbers to honour their hero and speakers at the event, among them, Member of Parliament (MP) for Mahalapye East, Botlogile Tshireletso spoke highly of him. They encouraged him to continue working hard,' he said.