3rd August, 2012
Following the ouster of Team Nigeria in the boxing event at the ongoing London 2012 Olympics, Head Coach of Calisto Boxing Club, Isiaka Olatunji, has advised the Nigeria Boxing Federation, NBF, to focus on promoting the sports in the grassroots.
Two Nigerian male boxers, Muideen Akanji and Lukmon Lawal, were both eliminated in the early stages of the Games, as they lost to Dareen O’Neil of the Republic of Ireland and Ihab Almatbouli of Jordan respectively.
Olatunji, a board member of the Nigeria Boxing Board of Control, NBB of C, said that the key to regaining Nigeria’s faded glory in boxing is for the authorities to concentrate on grassroot sports.
“The reason Nigeria is not having a good showing at the Olympics is due to the fact that we have totally neglected grassroots sport in the country. The authorities are not interested in developing young and talented boxers, but focus their attention on the so-called established ones,” lamented Olatunji.
He said: “It is a shame that the boxing authorities started to assemble the boxers only a few months to the Games. This is not the situation in other countries where the boxers had started their preparation four years earlier.”
The coach advised NBF to take a cue from the Lagos Boxing Hall of Fame, LBHF and Lagos Amateur Boxing Association, LABA, which have taken boxing to secondary schools in the state.
“Nigerian boxers will continue to perform abysmally at international competitions until the NBF begins to do what the LBHF and LABA are doing in Lagos State. That’s the only way Nigeria can regain her lost glory in amateur boxing.
“Lagos State is reaping the fruit of its investment in boxing at the grassroots. That’s the reason Team Lagos made a clean sweep of the medals in the boxing event at the Garden City Games last year,” said Sikiola.
—Bimbo Ajayi