By SANDRA MWILA –
THOMAS Chileshe says the Zambia Boxing Federation (ZBF) is too broke to raise US$15,000 needed to send boxers for this weekend’s African Federations Boxing Championship (AFBC) in Morocco.
The ZBF president said missing out on the ranking tournament will have a negative barring on the boxers performance at the Congo Brazzaville 2015 All Africa Games (AAG) and will lessen their chances to qualify to the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Chileshe said in an interview yesterday that missing out on the ranking tournament will see Zambian boxers miss out on being rated and recognised by the International Boxing Association (AIBA).
He said the federation has become bankrupt owing to a number of tournaments it has taken part in and was calling on the corporate world and Government to bail out the boxers.
“We are now bankrupt after participating in a number of preparatory tournaments and we will be unable to send the boxers to Morocco unless the cooperate world and Government comes on board,” he said.
Chileshe said it was unfortunate that Zambia only has Ben Muziyo, a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, rated by AIBA.
“When boxers are recognised by AIBA it comes with benefits, they receive sponsorship to train outside the country. In our current state, we miss out on a lot,” he said.
Chileshe said the ranking tournament would also be a good platform to expose the boxers because all the boxers that will be competing at the AAG will be present at the competition.
He said the ranking tournament would help the technical bench asses the boxers and have an insight of how to prepare them for the AAG.
“We might even miss out on the Rio Olympics if we don’t participate in the ranking tournament. The tournament will give us an insight of how our boxers are performing and what needs to be done to ensure we earn qualification,” he said.