ABA chairman Kameta extends olive branch to boxers

The Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) of Kenya chairman, John Kameta, has offered an olive branch to established boxers who missed the trials held a fortnight ago in Nakuru to pick the squad to represent the country in the 2012 Africa Olympic qualifiers in Rabat, Morocco, in April.

Kameta on Wednsday urged the boxers to turn out and face those already selected and earn themselves slots in the team.

Medal prospects out missing

He said: “It pains me to see good boxers from the Kenya Defence Forces who are our medal prospects in Rabat missing from the ‘Hit Squad’.

He added: “I am ready to  give any of them a chance to  prove their worth in the ring and if there are any objections from any quarters if they qualify  to join the fold, I am ready to order for fresh trials.”

Kameta also asked Matayo Keya, Nairobi’s most stylish light fly-weight boxer, to avail himself for the trails.

Keya has been demoralised after the ABA left him out of the squad to last year’s 10th All Africa Games in Maputo even though he had qualified for the competition during the trials held in Nakuru.

The ongoing wrangles in the game between the Kameta-led group and the Samson Mugacha-led faction has divided clubs to the detriment of the game. The infighting was responsible for  Kenya’s failure to send a team to the World Boxing Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan, last year, the first Olympic qualifying round.

Algeria was the only African country that qualified boxers (two) for the Olympics. Algeria have another chance of getting more boxers to the London Games but Rabat offers the only chance for the rest of Africa.