As Kenyan athletes were having their share of frustrations at the Rio Olympics in Brazil, the boxers were caught in the ropes as they could not replicate the performance of the 1988 Seoul Olympics national boxing team.
This is when Kenya won her first ever boxing gold medal at the Olympics when the late Robert Wangila Napunyi knocked out Frenchman Laurent Boudouani in the second round of the welterweight finals. The best performance before that was by Philip Waruinge who won a silver medal in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in Germany.
In fact, the national boxing team’s frustrations started when they entered residential training at Madison Square Garden in Nakuru, two weeks before they flew to Rio de Janeiro.
In Nakuru, the boxers lacked adequate training kits despite being accommodated in one of the best and well-equipped training facilities in the country that used to be the cradle of Kenyan boxing over the years.
They were forced to train in old and borrowed kits until their plight was highlighted by the media. That is when officials of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) rushed to save face.
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Kenya sent a team of three boxers to the Rio Olympics after they earned their qualifications in the African Olympic Qualifiers in Younde, Cameroon in March and at the World Professional Boxing Championships in Venezuela in July.
The team included Kenya Police’s light flyweight Peter Mungai Warui and bantamweight Benson Njangiru Gicharu and Rayton Okwiri of Kenya Prisons.
Mungai and Okwiri qualified at the continental qualifiers while Gicharu earned his ticket at the Venezuela championships.
Their coach was Patrick Maina Thuku who was assisted by David Munuhe, while the team manager was AIBA Level Three tactician, John Waweru of Kenya Police.
Things were even more complicated when Boxing Association of Kenya(BAK) President John Kameta, who had earlier been appointed the Team Kenya Team Manager, was dropped at the eleventh hour following his disagreements with Rio Olympics Chief de Mission Stephen arap Soi (also Nock’s assistant treasurer) that emanated at the 2012 London Olympics when both were in the Kenyan contingent.
The duo do not see eye to eye and Kameta was convinced that it is Soi who engineered his sacking as Team Kenya Manager, forcing the BAK President to file a case with Sports Appeals Tribunal Court, which upheld the decision to drop him(Kameta).
As a result, BAK was given the chance to nominate one of their own to replace Kameta, paving way for AIBA’s Level Three Coach John Waweru, whose appointment was hitherto junior and flew to the South American capital as the only national boxing team manager.
While in Rio, the team only received two sports kits instead of five, a decision BAK did not take kindly to upon arrival of the team at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
“Each player was supposed to be given five new sets of uniform, but they only received two — one was for their training sessions and the other for the different matches. How can a boxer use a pair of uniform set for more than three matches in an international competition?,” posed BAK Vice President Albert Matito.
Matito revealed that players’ allowances were also not paid in full by Nock after the government had released over Sh500 million for all Team Kenya members to be paid while still in Nairobi.
“Each player was only paid Sh800,000, instead of Sh1 million. We are not sure whether they would be paid their balance. We do not expect such officials to keep on being our leaders in future international championships,” a furious Matito said.
At the Rio Olympics, Gicharu was beaten in the first round by Erdenebat Tsendbaatar of Mongolia, while Okwiri was eliminated in the second round by Russian Andrei Zaamkovoi, as Mungai dropped in the quarterfinals against Cuban Joahny Argilagos who won 90-80 points (30-27, 30-27 and 30-26), having beaten Chinese Lyu Bin in a split points decision after he (Mungai) earned a bye in the first round.
This was an under performance compared to the past Olympic Games when the team used to reach the medal bracket.
“We want the team and technical bench be paid all their balances without further delay,” Matito appealed.
BAK Vice President Matito said their performance at the Rio Olympics is water under the bridge, as they are now focussing on local championships to pick another team for future international championships in the continent and across the globe.
Matito said they fully supported the disbandment of Nock by Sports, Culture and the Arts Cabinet Secretary, Dr Hassan Wario, for mismanaging the Rio Games.
“We fully support the dissolution of Nock to act as a stern warning to future Nock officials for the protection of our sportsmen and women in future international championships,” he said.
