By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE and SANDRA MWILA –

ZAMBIA Boxing Federation (ZBF) president Thomas Chileshe says the dream to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games (AAG) is still alive despite the boxers’ poor performance at the ongoing All-Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville.
Of the seven pugilists that represented the country at the pan-African Games, only Ben Muziyo managed to win a bronze medal while the rest succumbed to early elimination from the contest.
According to the International Boxing Association (AIBA) new regulations, only boxers that mint either gold or silver medals during qualifiers are guaranteed of automatic spot at next year’s Olympic Games.
But Chileshe, who described the boxers’ display at the AAG as uninspiring, said Zambia still stood a chance to qualify for the Rio Games.
“The performance of the boxers was not encouraging. We failed to win medals of ring rust (lack of competition), the boxers did what they could but they couldn’t win because they were not fully exposed to international competitions.
“We drew up a training programme which was not implemented due to inadequate funds and had we participated at the Morocco championship prior to the Games, perhaps we could have done better. However, this is no time to apportion blame, we have to forge ahead,” Chileshe said.
Chileshe said the federation would soon meet to review the performance at the Congo Brazzaville Games and devise corrective measures ahead of the Africa and World championships in Cameroun and Qatar, respectively, which are remaining qualifiers for the Olympics.
He said the federation would identify four boxers that would undergo intensive training for the purpose of qualifying them to the Olympics.
Zambia Judo Association (ZJA) president Alfred Foloko said he would issue a comprehensive statement on the failure by the judokas to mint any medals.
Meanwhile, Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) chairperson Mwamba Kalenga has called for more investment in youth sports to end local athletes’ poor performance at international tournaments.
Kalenga, who attributed Zambia’s disappointing performance at the AAG to lack of investment in sports, said most athletes lacked international exposure.
“As a country, we need to invest in the youth. Our athletes lack exposure, that is why they are failing to perform at international tournaments,” Kalenga said.
He further disclosed that the SCZ had disbursed more than K418,000 to various sports associations for their programmes and urged them not to depend entirely on grants but increase their financial base through fundraising initiatives.
“We have given out K418,200 grants this year to various associations. I want to urge associations not to rely on SCZ for the assignments, especially the local ones. They should try raising money on their own,” he said.
Some of the recipients of the SCZ grants are Netball Association of Zambia (NAZ), Zambia Polo Cross, Zambia Martial Arts Federation, Zambia Amateur Athletics Association, Badminton Zambia, Scrabble Association of Zambia, Handball Association of Zambia and Zambia Rugby Union.
Others are ZJA, Zambia Basketball Association, Zambia Table Tennis Association, Zambia Ladies Golf Union and Zambia Bowling Association.