Boxing Federation of Kenya targets to train more local coaches

Nick Okoth of the All African Games trains at the Kenya Police Deport in Muthaiga Nairobi ahead of the All African Games ion Morocco next month. [Phillip Orwa, Standard]

As the curtains come down on the AIBA Star One coaches course this afternoon, plans are underway to host more of such training in an ambitious programme by Boxing Federation of Kenya (BFK) to ensure more Kenyan boxers attain international status.

The six-day workshop in Nairobi could only be attended by 20 coaches owing to a number of factors, which include social distancing in tandem with the Ministry of Health guidelines on curbing the spread of Covid-19.

BFK Competitions Secretary John Waweru said they will sponsor more of such training in future in a bid to bring on board those who missed out.

He said they are out to ensure more coaches are trained to make tapping of talent at the grassroots a continuous process as players graduate from one level to the other.

“This is our ultimate goal of coming with as many qualified coaches as possible for them to achieve the AIBA Star One training and be armed with skills of tapping talent for it to become a continuous process in moulding future champions,” Waweru told Standard Sports yesterday.

Eighteen coaches who are former international boxers and two active players attended the course conducted virtually by Englishman Terry Edwards and Ervin Kade of Finland.

The active boxers include 2015 Africa Boxing Championships lightweight gold medallist Nick Okoth who has already qualified for 2020 Tokyo Olympics and national female middleweight champion Elizabeth Andiego.

The training is supervised by Waweru, national team head coach Musa Benjamin and assistant coach David Munuhe who are all qualified AIBA Star Three coaches.

Former international Absolom Okinyi and retired boxer Jane Onyango were also in attendance.

Ben Ahenda