By SANDRA MWILA –
ZAMBIAN female boxing sensation Catherine Phiri was by Press time held up in South Africa due to bad weather in the US.
Catherine, who left Zambia on Friday, was scheduled to connect to the US on Friday night for a training camp ahead of her World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight gold title fight against champion Yazmine Rivas.
Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotion (OQBP) manager Christopher Malunga said the team failed to connect to the US on Friday evening and yesterday morning due to bad weather in that country.
Malunga said in an interview from Johannesburg that they were still monitoring the weather.
“We are still in South Africa, we have not connected to the United States due to the bad weather. We are monitoring the weather on CNN,” he said.
Malunga said the delay had and would not disturb Catherine in any way as she was still in high spirits and that the WBC bantamweight silver champion had a morning training yesterday and was in weight.
“Catherine and the entire team are not disturbed by the delays. It’s nature and nothing can be done but she had a morning training session today (yesterday) and I am happy she is in weight,” Malunga said.
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that a massive blizzard bringing more than two feet (60cm) of snow and punishing winds is advancing up the US East Coast. More than 50 million people across more than a dozen states have been warned to stay at home as it moves north.
The nation’s capital, Washington, could lie under a record 30inches (76cm) of snow by the time the storm passes today.
Eight people have been killed, six states have declared states-of-emergency, and thousands of flights have been cancelled.