Kenya Prisons coach Ngumba laments over congested league bouts

Kibra’s Abubakar Hakeen (left) in action against Thailand’s Douglas Muya. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Kenya Prisons head coach Bernard Ngumba has said the league assignments they are taking part in are too congested for boxers to give their best.

He said having league assignments every fortnight is too much for boxers to achieve their best results.

“These assignments are too congested for boxers to give a good account of themselves and prevents them from giving their best in different fights,” Ngumba told Standard Sports.

In the past, the league assignments were held on a monthly basis as opposed to this season, where they have been held every two weeks.

The issue of congested fixtures was also addressed by a few club officials and boxers during the third leg of the National Boxing League at Madison Square Garden in Nakuru.

Boxing Federation of Kenya Secretary General David Munuhe said several international assignments have forced the federation to adopt this bi-monthly programme.

“We had a congested fixtures of international assignments this year as opposed to other years. This came at the beginning of the season forcing us to revise our local calendar so that the national teams could not miss taking part in any of the international assignments,” said Munuhe.

He said these international assignments gave boxers the required skills and exposure to tackle serious and senior future assignments of the same nature.

“Positive results come with such exposures and therefore they were crucial for our players that forced us to postpone some activities of our national calendar,” the BFK boss said.

Concerns of Ngumba comes even as the national league heads into the penultimate stage in Nanyuki from Thursday to Saturday.

“We are steadily moving towards that goal (of becoming the next champions) but it’s a step at a time in the next two seasons,” he said.

Ngumba said his boxers will take part in the Nanyuki leg, having missed the second leg in Siaya.

Munuhe confirmed all teams that featured in the Nakuru leg will be in Nanyuki this weekend.