National boxing coach, Obisia Nwankpa, has assured Nigerians of representation at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The National Sports Commission had come under increasing attack from worried Nigerians over the country’s continued non-participation in the series of qualifiers for the Beijing Games.
Speaking with our correspondent in Lagos on Tuesday, Obisia said that he was out for tickets in the 11 weight categories of the African Olympic qualifiers scheduled for Namibia between March 20 and April 4, vowing to ensure that his boxers were fired up for every contest.
“If we prepare very well there is no way we cannot return home with six or seven tickets from Namibia,” the former Commonwealth champion said.
“This is our last chance to qualify for the Olympics and we cannot afford to fail the nation.”
He lamented Nigeria’s inability to feature at various world events, including the AIBA World Championships in Chicago, USA last year, insisting that the nation would have sealed places in some of the weight categories.
A number of the countries scheduled to participate at the Beijing Games picked their tickets at the World championships in Chicago.
“I’m not happy that we’ve have missed African qualifiers,” Obisia said in reference to country’s absence at the qualifying tournaments in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.
The Secretary-General of the Nigeria Amateur Boxing Association, Patrick Uwagbale, said the team for the Namibia qualifiers would be selected from the national boxing event scheduled to take place between January 26 and February 2 at the Alake Sports Centre, Abeokuta.
According to him, only boxers who won their weight categories will be invited to camp in Abuja or Benin ahead of the African qualifiers in Namibia.
1 comment:
hot celebrities who is have more fans than other celebs.
Post a Comment