24th September, 2013
The 30 boxers invited to camp ahead of the World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, by the Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF), have commenced the camping a week earlier.
Tunde Luguda, NBF Secretary, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday that the camping, which was to start on 30 September, was brought forward to 23 September.
According to him, the rescheduling is to allow the boxers ample time to prepare for the event.
“We assembled world-beaters for the camping because we do not want to take chances. That is why we assembled them earlier than planned.
“We want to storm Almaty with the very best, in order to make an appreciable impact,” Luguda said.
He said that camping would run from 23 September to 10 October at the National Institute for Sports (NISports), Lagos.
At the end of the exercise, the selected boxers would proceed to the World Championship, expected to run from 11 October to 27 October in Kazakhstan.
Luguda told NAN that the boxers were selected from the last Open Boxing Championship, held in Lagos in August.
The secretary, who expressed happiness at the level of cooperation among boxers and coaches at the camp, said: “the boxers will regain the Nation’s lost grounds in the sport.”
He noted that the federation did not have the type of opportunity of preparing well before the last
2012 London Olympics, saying that that was why the country did not perform well.
Laguda stressed that the present crop of boxers would, however, remedy the situation.