Boxers excel in South Africa

Elite amateur boxing is alive and making good progress, is the message of the Namibia Boxing Federation (NBF) after one of its teams returned home with three gold medals from an event held in South Africa last week. The Namibian team notched up three gold, one silver and four bronze medals at the Zone IV Boxing Championships held at the Transnet Engineering Boxing Gymnasium Sports Hall in Tshwane, Gauteng. This performance pleased Telecom Namibia greatly as they are the sole sponsors of boxing at that level. &ldquo;This shows that we have extremely talented Olympic-style boxers who are bound to achieve greater things,&rdquo; said Telecom Namibia&rsquo;s public relations manager, Oiva Angula, at a press conference yesterday morning. &ldquo;We have to thank the great efforts of the NBF and their boxers. We are happy that their hard work is paying off through sheer determination and discipline. &ldquo;We are sure they will get more medals in future,&rdquo; Angula added. One of the trainers of the team, Joshua Veikko, expressed satisfaction with the team&rsquo;s performance when compared to some of the other countries - South Africa, Mauritius, Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland - at the tournament. &ldquo;Some of these countries&rsquo; boxers came from their overseas base and they thought they could just beat us. But we were quite outstanding compared to the others,&rdquo; he said. Veikko added that the achievement was made even more remarkable as Namibia had eight out of ten boxers reaching the semi-finals of the competition. &ldquo;This was brilliant,&rdquo; he said. But while the team did well and are enjoying some measure of financial support from Telecom Namibia, Mistake Gariseb &ndash;the senior trainer of the team - insisted that with more companies coming on board the team can progress even further. Grow with them &ldquo;We want to thank those that are supporting us&hellip; [but] we need more to come on board,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you help them now, then later when the success comes, you&rsquo;ll be first to be thanked. You can grow with them, from amateur level to going to the Olympics or Commonwealth Games and when they eventually turn professional. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t wait for them to turn professional before you start sponsoring them,&rdquo; Gariseb urged. As it stands, amateur boxers are in for an exciting time, as the Commonwealth Games are just around the corner in August, while the qualifiers for the 2016 Olympic Games will start next year. To help prepare the boxers with those events in mind, the NBF&rsquo;s secretary-general, Joe Kaperu, said the association will stage a competition against South Africa on May 10 at the Windhoek Country Club Resort and Casino. &ldquo;We do have boxers who have moves like that of [international recognised boxers] Floyd Mayweather and Muhammad Ali and we want to showcase their boxing talent on that night,&rdquo; he said. In addition to that, the NBF is also sorting out details with regard to an envisioned multi-country boxing camp that will be held in Spain, Kaperu said. &ldquo;We just need to sort out all the technicalities so that we can join other countries like Russia and Cuba at that camp in Spain from May 16 to July 21,&rdquo; he said.

Boxers excel in South Africa

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-24

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Boxers excel in South Africa

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-24

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