Boxers to miss last Olympic qualification event

Namibian Boxers have another chance to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio but due to lack of funds, the Namibia Boxing Federation (NBF) is unable to send its boxers to Baku, Azerbaijan.
NBF president Benjamin Rebang said the federation has no funds at its disposal to send boxers to the final AOB World Olympic Qualifying Event slated to 7 - 19 June in Baku.
Rebang said should the federation get funds before the competition, then a team will be set up to go and give their best shot at that event.
“We really thought of giving the boxers another chance because some coaches even felt that their boxers had done well after the qualifications in Morocco and deserved another chance but because of funds we thought of just leaving Azerbaijan out,” he said. Meanwhile he noted that Jonas Junias and Mathias Hamunyela are already in training camp and plans to send them to a high performance centre in Italy before another competition in Kazakhstan.
“Locally, the boys are settled and it is now just up to us to send them to a high performance centre where we plan to keep them there for at least a month,” he said, adding that the boxers will return home early July before they jet off to Rio.
Although it was revealed that each athlete who has qualified for the games will each receive N$ 250 000 to prepare for the event, Rabang said the boxers each only got N$100 000.
The NNOC received its preparation budget of N$ 2.8 million from the Ministry of Sport, which will be used for athletes’ preparation, accommodation and flight tickets.

KAINO NGHITONGO