After a period of inactivity, the Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF) has announced that it has begun preparations to ensure that many of the country’s pugilists qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.
The African qualifying tournament for the 2024 Olympic Games will be held in Dakar, Senegal, from September 6 to 16. Nigeria, which was once a powerhouse in Olympic boxing, has been a dormant force in recent years.
The country has not won a medal in the event since Duncan Dokiwari won bronze in the super heavyweight class in 1996. Nigeria has struggled to qualify for the Olympics, sending only one boxer to the 2016 Games in Rio and failing to qualify for the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
The Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF) is committed to correcting the mistakes of the past and has begun preparations for the African qualifiers with 14 boxers from seven weight categories at the National Stadium in Lagos
According to NBF Secretary General, Dapo Akinyele, the federation has been given the mandate to ensure that Nigeria qualifies for the Paris 2024 boxing events.
“We will ensure that we are in the Olympics this time around after we missed out on the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan.”
“We have gathered our best athletes for this camp and we expect results from them; this time around, we must put all machinery in place to ensure qualification.”
“Nigeria is not lacking in terms of talents, we have them in abundance; not forgetting that we have history in boxing with medals in boxing events at the Olympics.”
“We will do all it takes to ensure that we succeed this time, but first thing is that we want to qualify for the Olympics first,” he said. Also upbeat on the chances of Nigeria halting the slide in one of its key areas of competence, national team coach, Anthony Konyegwachie, said the boxers are in high spirits ahead of the Olympics qualifiers.”
“We are training well ahead of the qualifiers and the boxers are all responding well. The spirit in the team is high.”
“We do have morning and evening sessions. The morning session starts from 7.00 a.m. to 9.00 a.m., while the evening session lasts from 4.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m.”
“We have two camps; one here in Nigeria and another one in the United Kingdom, which has two weight categories for men, 92 kg, and women, 75 kg.”
“The weight categories in Nigeria are women, 50 kg, 57 kg, and 60 kg, while the men are 57 kg, 63.5 kg, 71 kg, and 80 kg,” he said. He restated the need to support the athletes, adding that adequate support for the team would enhance their performances.”
“We need more support for the boxers, they need to be well motivated ahead of the qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal. We need modern equipment for training.”
“Nothing should derail our ambition of attending the Paris 2024 because we have no excuse based on our pedigree in Africa, especially with the recent bout in Yaoundé, Cameroun, where Nigeria came seventh.”
“At the African Boxing Championship in Cameroun, we were able to secure one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals with short preparations; now, we have to perform better,” he said.”