 2-5 for my name is Max Oliver C.K. This time round we're going to speak about the state of boxing in the country with a man who was a team manager for the Heaps Code in Tokyo Olympics. Of course they just concluded championship and he's also the public relations officer for Boxing Federation of Kenya. Shugare himself, an international boxer, good to see you Shugare. Thank you ma. You were telling me that you were talking about side shows. Instead of talking about your role. Not really. And of course these are up air shinani guns. Of course when you are up air we are talking with Shugare about a lot of things. You know side shows that happened in Tokyo, Japan. They are staying at the village. How is it like considering it's COVID-19 pandemic no mingling, no interaction? I don't know when you come, when you hear those who have been to Olympics before speak and now you compare to what we experience in Tokyo. It's totally different because basically it's like we were somehow prisoners because we could not interact with the Japanese public. So we were in the village where we were about 11,000 of us from different nationalities. When you come out of the village you get into a bus taking you to a competition venue or practice venue and then after the competition or after the training session you board the bus back into the village and they are very serious security screening being done getting into the village and out. No especially getting in. So the accreditation card has got some backcodes whereby once if you get out of the village and maybe you go somewhere else not to the competition venue where you are supposed to go then you are going to be tracked using the accreditation card and when you are coming into the village you have to be screened so that you go and place the accreditation card on some machine and then it reflects your photo in the computer so that they are able to confirm whether you are rightfully supposed to be the one getting into the village using that particular accreditation. So they were very thorough in terms of security. There was not a lot of mingling. Every day we had to do kofi tests and I think there were very few positive cases within the village during the time you had the games. I think it was tough considering that especially when you go for the competition they are no fans it's mainly the boxers who are participating who are coming maybe to watch how the opponents are playing so that they are able to strategize for them going forward and it was not very lively in terms of lack of fans in the arena but I believe it was a wonderful experience for those who are able to get there and compete. All in all how was our performance? Our performance was not the best. I believe each and every one of the boxers gave their best. One case we were not very happy about was the one involving Niko Koth. Oh first match. And that was the first bout. Again a sub boxer from Mongolia. Yes I know that Mongolia is also very experienced considering somebody who was in Rio and got to the third stage at the Rio Olympic Games his three times Asian champion and so we knew it was somebody who was a bit experienced. I had done research on him and we gave a game plan to Nick which we were able to implement very effectively and Nick was able to neutralize the opponent very effectively such that during the first round the guy was not coming forward normally he comes forward attacking to the body but we told Nick he had to stay far wait for him to start and then he counters. First round the guy was not doing what he normally does so we had to change strategy in the second round which was again very effective. For first round Nick lost, second round he won, third round was the decider and we thought Nick dominated that round but to our surprise the decision was 3-2. The judges were split 3-2 in favor of Mongolia and that's how we lost that bout. Again unfortunately the organizers of the Olympic Game Boxing Tournament who is Sot Aiba who is an International Federation in Charge of Boxing it was IOC Boxing Task Force they had removed appeal mechanism so once that decision is entered you cannot appeal against it so it was very unfortunate and very frustrating for us because we thought that Nick had won that fight but everybody saw what happened and it really got into his mind and I remember I saw some interview he did and some video tape went viral him talking and apologizing to Kenyans how contrary to their expectations he didn't perform as they anticipated of him and I think people shored him with a lot of praise for being a great patriot and just for honorably accepting the defeat even it was not deserving. Ya he's our commander, he's the captain and he leads very well normally I don't know somehow it's a coincidence that when you go for a major tournament it's normally the first one to get into the ring and he opens for us very well we also did it very well unfortunately it also disappointed the other boxers who look up to him especially the next to get into the ring was Christine Ongare the following day and her she was affected so much because she was even speaking about it that if this can happen to Nick what will happen to me Yes but again even her she was competing again it's a very experienced boxer from Asia Philippines in particular I would say the person she was fighting again is normally competes at bantamuit level which is about 54 kgs and they were competing at flyweight which is for women is 51 kgs and for her she weighs about 48 kgs so in terms of weight she was disadvantaged in terms of physique she was disadvantaged so in terms of power again she was also disadvantaged but she did put up a good fight and again also she also she will say she got pressure in that our sports years came to watch her fight and she will say now she had the pressure of fighting this opponent and she knew she had biased officials and now she had to please our minister Yes but I thought it was a very good guest here for the CS to come and watch the fight where I was I waved to her she said hi it was good I will say we competed again in this very formidable opponents the draw was not favorable to us we got some very very tough fight because the next after Elizabeth after after Christine it was Elizabeth no it was Elia Joey Yes Hibwait and he was fighting again is Cuban four times world champion and Cubans are extremely talented in boxing Yes they are the super house they are the main drill deal in boxing do we need to do some benchmarking from them actually we really need to is there a partnership a collaboration system between Kenya and Cuba I understand I understand there was an MOU which was entered into an former CS HSA was a CS I think they went to Cuba and together with the president and I believe there was and there's a deal that was done but unfortunately has not been implemented I hope that one can be implemented because for Cuba Cubans are being so well they are the ones who won the tournament in in Tokyo they won four gold medals and in the first bout Hibwait category Julia De La Cruz from Cuba was meeting Elia Joey from Kenya it was a tough fight for us we knew it was tough because Julia De La Cruz we all know about him we know his tactics and I would say amongst the people that fought Julia De La Cruz in Tokyo Elia Joey could have fought him the best because he gave the strategy that we gave Elia Joey was not to go forward looking for De La Cruz because De La Cruz boxes with his hands down and he's very flexible and his legs are very fast so you will be cheated that you are seeing a target on the face and the time you are going to hit the face you know the punches are coming from when you are not seeing them because normally you expect the guard to be up so you are seeing these punches coming him the hands are down so you just here you just meet with punches Hajiwe Adi 412 and I believe he lost to Abeta Boxer generally what's your placement and overview about the competition is there a need for Kenyan Boxing Stakeholders to go to the drawing board so that in the next championship we perform better I believe we really need to go back to the drawing board because I can say in terms of officiating there's something missing there's a link we really need to try and get our officials to be at that level so that they can be also telling us what is it that these judges are looking for because sometimes we go for these major championships you don't agree with the kind of judging that's happening you wonder what is it that they are looking for because sometimes Aboxer is aggressive he's landing more punches yet when the decision comes out it's not what you expected again I've got one question to ask not only Kenya but Africa because you realize that the only medal we got I think was Ivory Coast or Ghana no Ghana Ghana we got a medal in boxing and that was the only medal we had in Africa what was our major undoing our major undoing I will say without linking my eyes COVID yes most of the Boxers who represented Africa at the Tokyo Olympic Games competed in the Olympic qualifiers which were in Senegal in the month of February 2020 yes and they never got into the ring until Tokyo Olympic Games there were no tournaments being held because of the COVID pandemic yes for us Kenya we were a bit lucky that we were able to participate in two international tournaments which was zone three boxing championship that was in the month of March in Kinshasa and then the next bout we were fortunate to participate in the Kurokov in Russia in the month of May those are two tournaments so by the time you are going for for the Olympic Games our Boxers the one who had most bouts from the time he qualified which was a almost a period of about two years was Niko Koth having participated in five bouts which is a bit inadequate because normally you know even our local league is not running so there are no local tournaments and there are no international tournaments to guide yourself so I would say in terms of preparation that's where most African countries missed a lot of opportunities to prepare their team adequately for participation at the Olympic Games and it showed in terms of the performance because you see Cubans Europeans performed a bit well when it came to the medal table I would say Covid really affected Africa so much because there were no tournaments for us to participate in and guide ourselves as part of preparation and just going to the gym and doing your normal training sparing it's not the same as competing you know in a tournament environment it's very different in a few maybe in the past when Kenya Kenya was a powerhouse in boxing we used to have so many international tournaments you could hear people talking about Bangkok Thailand it used to be that official name was Kings Cup in Thailand it was a big tournament we had Inter Cup in Germany we had Eastern Central we had Fescaba Africa Championship nowadays those tournaments are not there so we require to have a lot of exposure for our boxers to compete against some of these Europeans so that when you meet during a major tournament you have that experience of having competed against some of them and you are able now you improve and you are able now to gain confidence so that when you meet them maybe maybe now next major tournament to expect we have World Championship this year but I believe where our performance will be gauged very well will be in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham because the Cubans will not be there Americans will not be there so we are going to maybe or even the Russians so we are going to be competing mostly African countries and the British Colonies and I believe there we are going to do much much better if we are able to get good preparation going forward and I believe we are more than capable of going out there and winning this medals we just need to correct a few things here and there and then now we also need to invest to invest so that boxers such as Niko Kout, Elia Joy who are aging yes and are just about to retire we need to have young guys coming up to replace them so that these young guys we can also give them exposure and when it comes to this major tournament they can be able to go out there and compete effectively to replace the ones who are aging considering that boxing was one of the discipline that is not usually on the traditional Kenya's medal table or Olympic discipline which we usually go for because we go for athletics majorly and boxing is one of those that makes to the Olympics which is not our traditional mainstay and we have had that drought for I think 33 years without a medal in the boxing category which was the major lesson you took from Tokyo going forward for you now I want to correct you first boxing is the only other sport other than athletics that has won Olympic medal in Kenya and we have won a total of seven medals including Robert Wangila's gold medal in 1988 and we have won best boxer at the Olympic level that is 1968 Philip Huarwinga he won a bronze medal in Mexico 1968 and won Valbeca trophy for best boxer so and he also won silver medal in 1972 Munich Olympic Games so we have a number of medals we have won so it's not right to say that we are not in that basket we are more hopeful when we are going to compete at the Olympic level than some of the teams that represent the country but I believe it's a high time we also try and win medals because like we rightly said it's been a while from 1988 that's when we won our last Olympic medal and in that games we won gold for Wangila and bronze for Chris Sunday so I believe it's a high time also we try and prepare and see if we can get to that level where we can produce young boxers who can compete at that level and be able to win medals we noted that most of our opens are much much younger we had two boxers who are about 38 years and they are competing with boxers who are about early twenties and it's tough when you are boxing again and those young guys they have got their strength it's not easy and probably just like what we see also in football it's not easy for somebody who is 38 years to be getting a big contract unless you are Ronaldo or Messi so when it comes to age factor we need to invest in our young guys so that we have guys who can replace the ones who are getting older effectively and you know it's not just replacing so that you're able to go and maybe represent the country in Olympic Games is being able to represent and maybe be able to challenge for medals and it looks like it's been a smooth sailing for boxing federation of Kenya since Jamal Otieno rose to presidency of the association and the preparations for the boxers the eight squad representatives in Tokyo Olympics was fairly well because even the team was training in Lavington at the VV fitness launch and even everything was catered for them so I think we can exonerate BFK when it comes to you know complaints of poor preparations for the teams that represented Kenya at the Tokyo Olympics because going by our social media reports people have been condemning you know Kenyan federation honchos for failing to prepare the athletes properly can you exempt BFK from that blame? Yes, I will without a doubt uh for anybody who has been following boxing you you will understand the kind of arrangement that we had as box refederation of Kenya to prepare the boxers and we provided them a very conducive environment where we have state-of-the-art boxing gym at AV fitness in Lavington and it's an environment that even the our National Olympic Committee was not able to sustain for us to use as we prepare for the Olympic Games because we moved from AV to Kasarani where in terms of facilities is not the same and even when you ask the boxers themselves they'll tell you the difference that they encountered changing that environment from Lavington to Kasarani and when we go to Kasarani it was supposed to be a bubble bubble training camp and again it's when we go to Kasarani that we got our first case of COVID in the team which was not easy and which most people don't know about and I can tell you when you encounter COVID case during training camp it's hell because boxing it's a contact sport you don't know how much whether the case you have has spread to a few members of the team because you operate very closely so once we encounter a case in the camp it meant losing about five days until the next test are done because I think you are doing test of gravity 96 hours it meant losing that much time in terms of doing sparring awaiting the next test and confirmation of who is clean and so that you know what can be done because again I will not to train you following the government measures of social distancing and you see being a contact sport you know somebody hits you on the face and you are very close so it was a bit it was a big challenge the kind of preparation that we had at Kasarani COVID presented a very serious challenge to the preparations and it's totally I've also had almost similar cases with athletics I think I saw something on TV yesterday about the guy who under 20 120 championship Wanyoni gave a story and I felt for him Wanyoni of fresh work or 800 meters because most Wanyoni is dominated the competition Ya the Wanyoni did Wanda this time and he was very impressive so he was saying how he had tested positive then a few days to the race he tested negative and that's how he was able to participate and I could relate to that because we experienced the same during our camp and I know what it is and even psychologically it really gets to them and he rightly say that most people are so fearful of getting COVID than the race How is this bubble camping for the first time getting introduced due to COVID-19 pandemic I think it's a global practice where athletes are confined together so that they don't get subjected to infections related to the disease How is it like? That's when you talk about it that's ideally how it's supposed to be whereby once you actually you are tested before you get into the camp and once you get into the camp you are not supposed to go out and whoever is out is not supposed to come in but I think there was a problem somewhere I don't know in terms of organization because the guys who were serving us there were commuting from home so I thought that was a weak link which needed to be addressed because if it's a bubble it's supposed to be 100% bubble even for medical officers even for the staff who are operating in the hotel because they have people who are cooking for us and if them they are going outside and coming back home of course we don't know whom they are interacting with and you know COVID does not choose where you work and your status in life if anybody can get it and anywhere so it was a bit of a challenge that's how ideally it was suppose we get in you are not able to come out and when you are out you are not supposed to come in but we had a weak link in terms of some staff who are operating there were going out and coming in but I believe the last few days when we were just about to go out to Tokyo that's when it was corrected but it's very tough having to stay in that control environment but again I think they were also preparing us for what was likely to happen in Tokyo because in Tokyo again we encountered and most chic this time because if you violated any of those there were penalties and the worst of it could be refocation of your accreditation status which it was very okay we were like nobody encountered that but it will have been very unfortunate if you are having to return home because of not observing the COVID the COVID measures that have been put in place and we had also signed some code of conduct which you are supposed to follow we had been sensitized enough so I think we are good in terms of preparing us for what was to happen to us when we go to Tokyo Generally Shuguras we wind up tell us about the world international day for boxing yesterday what did you do with it yeah yesterday we celebrated and I didn't know that world international boxing they normally come from 28th of august I know you thought it was supposed to be 27th 27th no it's because you've been misinterpreting the ones in December 26th boxing day considering where I come from unjustifies to misinterpret yeah so yesterday was I think it's the first ever yes international boxing day and we were lucky enough to be chosen as one of the centers main centers actually in Africa where we were to host the celebrations for the day we organized an event at Nyaya National Stadium we tried to call about five people from all counties that have boxing and we facilitated them to come to Nairobi for the event and we had a successful day we were joined by some officials from the minister of sports from the national Olympic committee I was particularly impressed by Secretary General Mr Francis Motuko who really yeah he trained with us and I think he had fun he enjoyed he's a good dancer so we started with Zumba as part of the warm up for the sessions so we had a a three hour session where we were training and hosting some some bouts exhibition bouts so that we celebrate the day for boxing and we called boxers who were young or as young as nine and we also had veterans some of the big names that brought so much glory to this country the likes of Steven Moshoki was there George Foreman Joseph Acasamba those guys who did as proud during those days and we also had hit squad they were there all of them we gave certificates to the veterans just to appreciate them for their efforts and service that they've given to the sport of boxing we also gave out certificate that the coaches who did some IBA star one coach which we were able to conduct here in Hilton it was virtual so the officials who qualified and the exam is very strict you have to get 80% and above for you to qualify to be a star one coach so we had nine people whom we got their certificates and we handed them to them yesterday during the world international boxing day and it was big more so in Belgrade Sabia because that was where the main Sabia was the main center because that is where we are going to have the world championship this year sometimes in October we will be able to send some boxes there to represent that during the world championship finally what's happening to our lady and someone who brought glory to this particular country I've seen her trending for the better part of yesterday Konjestina Ching because government had promised that it would put her into rehab so that she can get reformed and she can regain her normal status like she was before because she is someone who did exemplary achievements for this particular country during her heydays what is happening under BFK are you seeking to intervene because it looks like situation is getting out of proportion for Konjestina's case it's very unfortunate what she is going through first I want you to understand the roles because Konjestina was not in how much a boxing how much a boxing or nowadays it's called open boxing it's what we do now as we are able to go represent the country in the Olympic Games Commonwealth Games Africa Africa Championship Konjestina was in pro was in professional which is technically under KPBC but as a as a federation we can always give support and actually I know our president was involved in getting her to rehab those are I think most credit went to former governor for Sia Sonko for Nairobi yeah when he went into rehab so I but they were working together with our president Mr Jamal and we took Konjestina and Bilali to a rehab but sometimes I think her problems are beyond rehab yes actually and she has gone to rehab now twice I believe there was another another time when Radul Karol Radul organized for her to go to a rehab which was in Thika and she stayed there for about three months and she completed that very well I know Radul had a bigger plan of seeing how she can be helped in terms of getting making her to be active and maybe even also facilitating maybe the caregivers who are taking care of her to be able to get amines of running a livelihood so that they are able to support the efforts of trying to now take care of Konjestina ah I'm not sure if she's getting any any support at the moment from the government though promises have been given before but sometimes these promises are given and they are forgotten immediately they are given so I will think it's a high time we also try to appreciate her one of our heroines because she did she did the country proud when she was fighting she used to tell us to come early because she is going to finish the job quite early so I believe it's a high time that also maybe the government takes a serious initiative of trying to assist her sometimes her problem looks more psychological I don't know it's it's leave it to the doctor it's something much technical than us just talking about it here because I have I have seen some of the initiative that have been held to try to to assist her but somehow it keeps recurring how did speak about it authoritatively because I think from medical perspective we need serious psychologists to look into it and tell us exactly what is she suffering from I think what I saw trending was something like she burnt her house or something I'm not sure I don't have evidence if for real she did that but I think her problems are much bigger than just asking a federation to assist let's hope that we will get to the bottom of what she's going through kundistina of course someone who did this country proud bringing glory back home but right now a lot of predicaments medically and she did psychologically she might be facing a lot of problems but we very optimistic that it will be solved soon the government will intervene and all the relevant boxing state called us locally sugar it's been an honor coming through your parting shot as we wind up from the boxing perspective I think as a federation we are going to try our level best to see how we can continue keeping our boxers active we've been very disadvantage from the pandemic point of view whereby our sport was not reopened I think from the time when we got our first case in the country we've not been having boxing actively going on across the country luckily for national team we've been able to go to some international assignment but we think we really need to do something so that we are able to reopen boxing even if it means having to vaccinate all the boxers and seeing how we can put up measures to be able to hold a few tournaments before the end of the year so we want to assure our fans that we are going to do everything possible to bring back the sport of boxing we might not do the league at the moment but we can organize one or two tournaments to be able to keep our boxers busy and we want to invest more in to in our youth so that we are able to get young boxers coming up to replace those who are aging out we also need to put a lot of emphasis in women boxing because come 2024 olympic games in paris we are going to have equal number of boxers for men and women in the spirit of gender parity which is being spearheaded by the international olympic committee so there is a very big opportunity for young girls to come join boxing and within the next three years they'll be able to represent the country at the olympic games joining some of the pioneers who have done that and that is Christine Ongare who was in Tokyo 2020 and Elizabeth and Diego who represent the Kenya in the London olympic games 2012 Thank you Dan Kankuru also known as Sugarai International Boxer formerly of course he played the sport and he is currently PRO for Boxing Federation of Kenya and he was the team manager for HIT Squad and they just concluded the Tokyo Olympics Championship joining us this particular afternoon to share AAC insights with regards to the state of the sport in the country and he says the future is very bright we are looking forward to see how that goes of course the line continues until three o'clock in the next few minutes Arsenal will be up again Manchester City in what is expected to be I don't know when I would call it a mouth watering clash because some people saying that you know it's sort of a one-sided affair but you never know in football anything can happen of course that's coming up next but the fun zone is due to happen in the next few minutes don't go away stay tuned