 Yes, indeed. Welcome back. This is the touchline with me, Bernardo Koumena, as earlier promised. We're getting into the second, rather first segment for the interview. And what else? I'm blessed to have the communication director from the Boxing Federation of Kenya. That's a Duncan, Sugar Ray Kurya Karibusana Duncan. You know, and you stuck with the name Sugar Ray. Must have been doing when you were active those days, right? Ya, I used to float like a butterfly and sting like a wick. Ya, you hung your gloves early? Yes, I hung it earlier because of other things, professional work. But I was interested earlier by more than 10 years. And you did really leave a good trail. You know, you still married the sport that gave you what you have, the communication director serving in that role for years now. But it should be interesting. Ya, it's very interesting because I understand the sport. I understand the sport fully in all aspects of the sport. And it's much easier for me also now to tell the world the stories about boxing from across the world. And also it's much easier when I'm communicating with the boxers because we understand each other, I understand everything they go through. And I'm able to give them advice on how to win fights from time to time. And I also document everything that they do. So it's much easier for them now than it was for our time because our time we didn't have videos and all that. So it's a big difference when you're seeing pictures and when you're seeing videos. So because from videos you can learn a lot on areas on which you can improve your game. So I believe now they are in a much better position than we were in the past. And I believe also the sport is also changing very fast because much earlier even the scoring was very different from what it is now. So now things I think I've gone more digital than those days when it was more manual. And so I think there's a great chance for the ones who are here now to perform very well. Yeah and maybe when you're documenting it because now you just took it upon yourself but you're serving the public office, right? Yes. I mean will it remain, will you set up that particular office and maybe whoever comes after you will still do the same, continue what you've been doing, documenting and like a museum for BFK. Ideal I think that should be the right thing to do because we need to document what we've been doing all these years and I believe it will form a very good foundation for those who will come after us. They are able to find structures that are working and maybe even improve on those structures as time goes by. So I believe when the other guys will be coming behind us they'll find something that is very operational and will be very meaningful to them to be able to pick up from there and improving further. Yes indeed, just in a nutshell that's what Shuga Reisola about at BFK documenting the Kenyan boxes wherever they are locally and also whenever they're going for international championships. Last year was a good year for Kenyan boxes. Flash of brilliance from a number of boxes which showed that indeed they're in for, they can cause an upset on the global stage talking about maybe some of the major events including the World Championship were born for Muguna David Karangia. Really did good give account of themselves and also know for getting Frieza Anyango though she faced a man. Oh you remember that. It was amazing ya and I believe our boxers did very well and I remember the case you're talking about where Frieza Anyango fought against Imani Khalif of Algeria who had been during the championship Imani was disqualified because IBA did some DNA tests and they say that no this is difficult, she is a man she has more testosterone or something like that it's something similar to what we have in athletics with the case of Semenya and some a few of our girls also so it's something it was very new in boxing it was the first time it was happening and unfortunately we happened to have been victims of the process because because they could not reverse the decisions and the lady was allowed okay now lady because later they said this is a man she progressed all the way to the finals and it's when now the roster for the final came out that we discovered she had been disqualified and the person she defeated in the semi-final from Thailand was going to take place to take part in the finals so it was a very unfortunate the man in which also the matter was handled was very unfortunate because there was no formal communication to tell us what happened and what will be our recalls because we felt to be victimized by the situation because I don't understand how a person who had failed DNA test was allowed to compete in the tournament getting up to the final and then now because we lost to her and it was unfair being that they are saying now it's a man why did they allow a girl to fight with a man so it was not fair how the whole thing happened but it's some of those unfortunate things that happen sometimes in the spot and we don't have a recalls for review or appeal so we just have to live with what it is no matter how negative it might be but generally I think our boxers gave very good account of themselves the likes of Boniface Mogunde getting up to quarter finals the world championship fighting again some of the top boxers in the world David Karanja did very well both in the world championship and also in the Africa championship which happened in Yaunde Kamerun so I believe we have a very good crop of young boxers who are very promising and I believe if they continue training with their coaches and they get more time to work and correct some of the mistakes they have been doing they are going to gain very good experience to be able to go toe-to-toe again some of the top boxers in the world and that's the way we are going to regain the past glory of our country in boxing where we used to be among the top four nations in the world Yes indeed and of course some of the efforts being done is maybe one week or it was two weeks training in Cuba what lies ahead now this year This year I am hoping we are going to be able to also continue preparing our teams although at the moment I don't know of any plans to take our boxers up to the country for training camping but I believe the experience that we got in Cuba was of very massive help to us and I believe that experience itself will be able to put our boxers in very good stand when they are competing against some of our fellow competitors especially from Africa continent and also when you go to the world stage where we are fighting against the big boys it gives us a very good standing to be able to compete against the best of the best because we are there with all those world champions olympic champions and we are doing sparring with them training with them every other day and we just got the vibe the Cuban vibe of fighting which was very good and if you see if you watch Boniface Mugunde at the moment or David Karanja they are trying to put into practice what they learned there and they have really improved in their matches you find like Boniface Mugunde hardly any of our boxers now is able to finish three rounds with him he is knocking them out all the time and that shows that his work is so hard himself and he has a very good attitude and when he was there he was just there to learn trying to observe what is it that these Cubans are doing what is it that makes them so special to be able to win and I believe that is the kind of culture that we also need to nurture with our young guys here so that as they become of age just like what Awawa Ziri was saying we have young guys who are coming up so that we are able to give them a chance to be competing at a very young age so that when we have the issue of transition you know the likes of Mugunde are going out we have others who are equally as good coming to take their places because if you don't build that depth now then in future it's going to hurt us because at time will come when for instance the like of Niko Koth had to leave the space because of age and we need to have young boxers coming to take their space and they must be competitive enough to be able to win medal like Niko was winning so unless you work with the youth and junior structure you are going to struggle to do the transition because you hardly have depth and you know like in the past we see that the administration used to focus mainly with those who are the national team and you don't focus mainly with those who are competing at the grass root where the talent is produced so you find when the guys at the top are fighting up their late maybe late 30s when you need to transit because the age limit is 40 when you get to 39 then you cannot be able to compete in the other tournament so at that time you are having to replace somebody and the person who is coming is very far off in terms of experience it's not known either and when you are going to fight again in some of these top boxers then you must have some experience to be able to go with them and of course good jobs of being done by former boxers Nika Bakai in Karyobangi North Bensun Gisharu in Mokoro yes fight for life and trying to bring up boxes that's the depth we are talking about but let's talk about the Olympic qualifiers we cannot not have the direct qualification is there another chance for our boxers to go through to the Olympics? yes we still have two chances the first qualifier was the Africa Olympic qualifier which happened in Dhaka Senegal where we didn't get a qualifier though we had a boxer that fought up to the final and won a silver medal in Elisabeth and Diego but the quotas for Africa were very challenging because it was only the gold medalist that was qualifying and like last time we were qualifying up to the bronze medal this time it's only the gold medal has Iben Olympic settled it? no they haven't so it's a bit of a challenge the International Olympic Committee removed the IBA from the Olympic family so at the moment the boxing at the Olympic will be there's a Paris boxing unit which is going to take charge of the boxing at the sport at the Olympic level IBA will not be involved and it's the second time that is happening because also in Tokyo there was a task force that was formed to take charge of boxing where the IBA and the IOC was it so hard the recommendations to be taken into place so that the ratification may happen things to be done in order there was a challenge between the two organizations and there are several issues that IOC had pinpointed that needed to be corrected in IBA so it's a ping pong because IBA now say that they corrected all those things that they were told and they have done much more than they did the issues to do with the result system the manipulation the issues to do with the integrity in terms of finances so those issues according to the IOC have not been corrected according to IBA they say they have corrected so there's a disagreement between the two organizations and it's hurting the sport because now when it comes even to the Olympic qualifier it is the IOC Paris boxing unit that's taking charge of that we have to one qualifier the next qualifier is going to be happening Busto Arsusio in Italy in the month of february end of february from 29 february to 10th of march and then immediately from there we go for the africa games which will be in Accra Ghana after that we go to in the month of may we have again now the second and last Olympic qualifier which will be happening in Bangkok, Thailand so we are hoping when we go to those two qualifiers at least we will be able to get some qualifiers to qualify for the Paris olympic games which will be happening in July so after that we also have our local league which will be running for current age so we are hoping that our boxers are going to be busy basically the whole year because our last tournament is going the league tournament will end in the month of December from 90 to 21 that's when we are going to complete our calendar and it has started today where we are having the national novices final happening right now as I speak here because the national novices are happening at Green Park Hall so we are hoping it's a whole calendar where all activities are catered for and we are hoping to have a very successful year yes indeed maybe as we wind up your last thought on the August youth national team trials basically we have been having a challenge because the school calendar was hugely affected by the covid pandemic but now it's getting to normalize so we are hoping every time that the schools close we are going to have a championship but in the month of August we are going to have a selection for youth and junior so that we are able to select a national team which will be able to present us in the world youth and junior championship to be happening in Croatia in the month of November so the August trials which we have not said the specific date we need to consult with the education calendar so that we don't inhibit those who will be going to school so the exact date when the trials will be happening but the objective of the trials will be to select a team to represent the country in the youth world championship which will be happening in Croatia in the month of November thank you so much Duncan for making time on Touchline Y254 and a great update on what lies ahead of the boxing calendar of course events happening Kenyan Boxers still have a chance to go to the Olympics so the heads up and also good news about the development of Bonfos Mugund and David Karanja as far as bolstering their skills is concerned so we must say those are the medal hopeful so of course there are other interesting talents that did come through last year including Friza Nyango, Emily Juma, Bolin Chege and Amina Mata but we will be having second time for you always welcome thank you so much Duncan we have this particular action from the Afghan and will be coming back with Sad Musa, a FOMFC leper who will be here talking about his journey as the national team South Sudan national team player and where next after announcing his departure from Ingwe keep watching Touchline