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Kenya’s ‘Hit Squad’ set for Cuba camp
What you need to know:
- Kameta was impressed by the performance of middleweight Andiego who narrowly lost to an Indian opponent on 3-2 points.
Kenya’s “Hit Squad” may train in Cuba ahead of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, the country’s boxing boss John Kameta has said.
The Boxing Association of Kenya (BAK) president on Wednesday said that he was organising with a Cuban boxing official he met in Delhi during India’s inaugural International Open Boxing tournament held recently for the Hit Squad to attend a three-week training camp.
The camp will run from February 28 to March 20.
From Cuba, the Kenyans will go straight to Australia for the Commonwealth Games due on April 4 to 15. But first the team will go into residential training at Nakuru’s Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
Kameta expressed dismay at Kenya’s performance in Delhi. Kenya's team of 16 fighters composed of 10 men and six women competed in Delhi but none of them made it to the medal brackets.
The best placing were three quarter-finalists - Shaffi Bakari (light fly), Elly Ajoi (heavy), Jacob Kimanthi (welter), Nick Okoth (light) and Nick Abaka (light heavy).
Kameta said that because of the poor showing he could not decide whom to drop from the Commonwealth Games squad.
Prior to the Indian trip, Kameta had said that he would pick seven male boxers for the Games.
In India, Kenya’s bantamweight boxer, Benson Gicharu, returned home without throwing a single punch.
Kamate said: “Gicharu was supposed to meet an Afghanistan boxer, but the Afghanistan team had not arrived by the time of the weigh-in and medical, examination. We were therefore taken by surprise when the organisers allowed Gicharu’s opponent to compete. But for Gicharu, they said that he could not box because he had not been weighed.” Kameta said that they protested to the organisers but it was all in vain.
“They were not following International Boxing Association (AIBA) rules. It was a contradiction because they allowed our female boxer (Elizabeth Andiego) to compete even though she had been given a walkover like Gicharu,” fumed Kameta.
Kameta was impressed by the performance of middleweight Andiego who narrowly lost to an Indian opponent on 3-2 points.
Andiego, who represented Kenya in the 2012 London Olympics, was competing for the first time since a road accident in May 2016 that left her with broken legs.
