28 Mar 2022

Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) held its first youth and junior development tournament in Lobatse Saturday.

Although the low turn-out resulted in few bouts, the association viewed the event as a success in their quest to unearth young boxers.

BoBA secretary general, Taolo Tlouetsile, said in an interview after the tournament that one of the reasons for holding the competition was to encourage clubs to have junior (15-16 years old) and youth (17-18 years) boxers.

Tlouetsile further said the second objective was to scout for youth category boxers for possible selection into the national team that would compete at the Africa Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Championships. He said the AUSC 2022 Championships would be held in Malawi.

“We do not have structures to select players for the AUSC Region 5 tournament in the absence of school sports. Therefore, we decided to stage this youth and junior development tournament so that through our clubs, we could give game time to young players and scout them for possible selection. It’s the first time that we have staged this kind of tournament,” he said.

He attributed the low turn-out of boxers to the fact that most of the BoBA affiliates had no youth development structures.

He said that resulted with some boxers failing to have bouts due to lack of opponents in their weight division.

He further said boxers from Molepolole Boxing Club were unable to compete due to technical issues.

He said a total of eight bouts were completed.

He said clubs which came to the tournament were Mafika and Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) boxing clubs from Lobatse, Molepolole, Botswana Defence Force (BDF) SSKB and Eastern Military Garrison (EMG) camps, University of Botswana, Prisons and Moshupa Prisons.

“In boxing we do not have many clubs with development structures at the moment like in football. So we have to start somewhere. This is why we are encouraging clubs to have juniors boxers,” Tlouetsile said.

He said youth development was important for seamless transition of boxers to senior teams.

He said the association would await technical evaluation before deciding on dates for their next junior and youth development tournament.

The secretary general pointed that BoBA usually spent in the range of P15,000- P25,000 to stage its tournaments.

The results were as follows: Katlo Kgowe (Prisons) defeated Nono Keabetswe (EMG) in the 54kg division, while Ribbin Modise (Moshupa Prisons) defeated Thabang Jacob (EMG) and Otsile

Mogobye (UB) beat Tshepo Moatshaeisi (Prisons) in the 57kg division.

Ntibi Mpho (EMG) beat Daniel Manyisi (Prisons) while Mmoloki Sekwaite (EMG) beat Arnold Moloi (Moshupa) in the 60kg division. Boitshepo Morapedi (EMG) beat Olefile Maikano (Prisons) in the 63kg division. Gift Thipe (SSKB) beat Tshepang Madubeka (EMG) in the 67kg division. Puso Kgotso (EMG) beat Moanatsela Moanatsela (Prisons) in the 71kg division. ends